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Climate Change Minister James Shaw wants to see a new ban on gasoline and diesel cars, which will be implemented at the same time as the UK ban.
During an interview with Stuff about his priorities for the second term, Shaw said he would recommend the policy to the new Transport Minister Michael Wood as an “anti-dumping measure” and for environmental reasons.
The UK plans to ban all new combustion-engined vehicles by 2035, although British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to take it to 2030.
Shaw, the Green Party co-leader, is concerned about the fate of left-hand drive cars in the UK after the UK ban, considering that most of the world drives on the right. “If we let them into New Zealand, we get fed up. We will have no chance of reducing our transport emissions, which are the fastest growing sector, ”he said.
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Despite the merits, Shaw is unsure that a vehicle import ban will win Cabinet approval. “I will recommend it, but we have to warm people up.”
Under a Labor-Green agreement, Shaw kept his role as climate change minister after this year’s election.
Shaw said Labor MPs held many of the portfolios with the power to introduce the most effective carbon reduction policies, such as Energy Minister Megan Woods.
“In this period, the priority must be to work with the economic sectors where we are going to obtain the greatest gains in the real reduction of emissions,” he added. “For me, it is a coordination function.”
ROSE WOODS
In his first term as Minister of Climate Change, James Shaw passed the Zero Carbon Act. He spoke with Stuff about his second term priorities.
Of the legislation that Shaw will oversee this term, the requirement that large companies report their climate-related risks, announced earlier this year, will have the biggest impact on emissions, he said.
“It’s one of those things that most people don’t care about, because it’s corporate reporting … [but] the long-term effect of that could be one of the most important things we do. “
The proposed Climate Change Adaptation and Managed Retirement Act will also attract much of Shaw’s attention during this period. You would like to see it prepared in parallel with the reform of the Resource Management Law.
“Certainly, it must be introduced in this legislature, but it will be very significant. If it is approved or not in this legislature … who knows ”.
Outside of his portfolio, Shaw believes the country’s biggest emissions cuts will come from the decarbonization of travel.
“Emissions from transportation are the area where the growth of our emissions is not controlled. In all other sectors, including agriculture, emissions are roughly stable and have been for some time; They are tall, much taller than they should be, but at least they have been flat. But transportation has gone up and up because we fell in love with the Ford Ranger. “
Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
Transportation contributes a large part of the country’s emissions. Will the government take aggressive measures in this period?
Would you recommend that the government introduce measures, such as congestion charges, to make driving less desirable? “What I’m going to fight for is for more money in the other modes. You have to enable the mode switch … You can apply all the stick you want, but if there is no other alternative, people will keep driving. “
The country can also save carbon by encouraging companies to ditch their fossil fuel boilers and heaters. Shaw believes that Energy Minister Megan Woods will provide the right incentives during this period.
Last week, the government opened a $ 70 million fund to help companies pay for the change, but Shaw would like to see private investors increasingly take over, through the Green Investment Fund.
“The objective of this is to develop a commercial investment system that allows this transition. It does not necessarily mean that the government must contribute the taxpayers’ money in all cases. “
Shaw anticipates a bill describing methods for calculating agricultural emissions that will be drafted for this term. The He Waka Eke Noa partnership between the government and the agricultural industry will present its recommendations in 2022.
“If you are going to have it on all farms in 2024, you need to legislate by the end of 2023. Because there are elections in 2023, that suggests you should legislate before then.”
Tom Lee / Stuff
During this term, an agricultural association is expected to detail how farms measure greenhouse gases.
The association will decide how to measure emissions, provided sufficient progress is made. How to price each greenhouse gas under the scheme remains a matter of discussion, Shaw said.
He had heard that the price of emissions on farms would be tied to the current price of carbon under the emissions trading scheme, yet “those decisions are yet to come,” he said.
Shaw agreed that the Commission on Climate Change (which will publish its first recommendations next year) will provide political cover for carbon reduction policies.
“Across the political spectrum, you can complain and gnash your teeth because your point of view is different from your own,” he said. “I said when we passed the Zero Carbon Law: as long as everyone hates it equally, we have probably landed in the right place.”
