Don’t get too excited though. This is a National-New Zealand First-Act New Zealand government, so progressive environmental policies are highly unlikely.
It has been a big week for those politicians striving to give the government some kind of green conscience and street-cred.
On Wednesday, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts unveiled a climate-change strategy, based on five pillars. Mr Watts called the strategy ambitious and comprehensive, and said it delivered on the government’s commitments to climate-change mitigation.
Each of the core-goal pillars — covering resilient infrastructure and community preparedness, credible markets, clean energy, climate innovation, and nature-based solutions — was accompanied by three bullet points to expand on the aspirations.
Needless to say, the pillars were pilloried for their lack of policy detail, which the government said was coming in the next fortnight. We await that eagerly.
Greenpeace dug deep into its criticism bag and came up with the delightfully old-fashioned phrase, "about as useful as teats on a bull". The strategy contained nothing which would help combat global warming and was predicated on "unproven and unreliable technofixes", spokeswoman Sinead Deighton-O’Flynn said.
Greenpeace also called out the incongruence of announcing the strategy when the government had been far more focused on overturning the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, and doing everything it can to increase mining, some of it on conservation land.
Also this week, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka announced a wee $25 million boost for projects around the country, including for tracks and walks, eradicating land and marine pests, managing and maintaining the Huts of National Importance, and supporting activities encouraging people into nature. It may be a small amount of money, but it’s something at least, so credit where credit is due. However, a great deal more is needed, but the government’s attitude when it comes to the Department of Conservation has been to keep on pruning its staff and operations.
Arguably the biggest piece of environmental news this week was the report from the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment of the likely consequences of allowing marine oil and gas exploration to restart. The ministry for almost everything calculated that reversing the current ban will have a significant effect on greenhouse gas emissions, with an additional 51 million tonnes of them pumping out into the atmosphere from now until 2050. That is roughly the amount of emissions New Zealand produces annually.
However, MBIE mirrored the government’s current line that if oil and gas companies are more confident about investing in fossil fuels, it could result in a higher level of natural gas production. If more gas is available, that might lessen the reliance on having to burn coal when the electricity system is under pressure.
At the same time as all this was happening, Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich was being accused this week of contradicting the Dunedin City Council’s views on climate change and mining when he appeared before Parliament’s Environment Committee in May.
He said at this week’s workshop he was comfortable with his answers at the select committee on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, but he was criticised for giving personal opinions rather than following the council’s line.
Unfortunately, when a National government is in power, matters of the environment always come a poor second or third or fourth to economic ones. When will it be properly recognised that climate change and environmental problems are indeed important, urgent, economic issues too, rather than something seemingly more inconsequential?
It will probably only be a matter of weeks until another storm hits vulnerable New Zealand communities, wrecking homes, businesses and livelihoods.
All in all, then, it was a Claytons’ kind of week. The government made a token effort to unveil the environment policy you’re having when you’re not having an environment policy.
