Climate Submission Guides
The deadline for submissions on the Climate Commission first Draft Advice is 28 March. This is a key time to consider what action the country takes on climate change and how it meets international commitments and gives important consideration to the impacts on future generations.
A number of groups have created submission guides or templates to help you have your say on the Climate Change Commission’s Draft Advice:
The first submission guide was produced by the groups: Developed by Pacific Climate Warriors, SS4C, 350 Aotearoa, Generation Zero, Forest & Bird Youth, Oxfam, Zero Waste Network Aotearoa, The Rubbish Trip, Para Kore and Coal Action Network. Disability responsive climate change position, contributed by SustainedAbility.
The template to support you in making a submission is estimated to take 10-15 minutes.
The OraTaiao: NZ Climate & Health Council of health professionals has put together a submission guide which focuses on how the Commission can improve its advice by recommending climate actions that improve health and health equity, and centralise te Tiriti o Waitangi. This can be found at Put Health at the Heart of Aotearoa’s Climate Response.
Background climate articles
Background articles and commentaries on the Climate Commission proposals and related issues are plentiful. The following are a useful start.
Newsroom: Climate Emergency: Why we can’t plant our way out of climate change
“Analysis: As New Zealand gears up to fight climate change, experts warn that we need to actually reduce emissions, not just plant trees to offset our greenhouse gases, Marc Daalder reports”
“However, the benefit of any individual hectare of planted trees is limited and is no replacement for reducing gross emissions, which in New Zealand have flatlined for the better part of two decades. Even today, our emissions are nearly a quarter higher than they were in 1990, while many other countries have managed to reduce emissions.”
Climate Emergency: Decarbonising New Zealand – the numbers that count
“Analysis: Figures from the Climate Change Commission show New Zealand will miss its net zero target by a country mile if proposed emissions budgets aren’t adopted.”
Targets
Stuff: Why the Climate Change Commission’s targets are so weak – Robert McLachlan 13 March 2021
“The short answer is: not ambitious enough to meet the goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The line of argument pursued by the commission is that if we met the average reductions needed globally, for each of the different greenhouse gases, the [greenhouse gas emission] budget would come out to 564m tonnes.
They admit that simply meeting the global average isn’t enough (we’re a rich country whose historical contribution to climate change is about six times the world average). And yet, the proposed budget of 628m tonnes is higher than 564m tonnes.“
Emission Trading Scheme (ETS):
Stuff: The secretive auction designed to cut our climate pollution
“The country’s first-ever emissions trading scheme auction is taking place [morning Tuesday 17 March]. To participate, you’ll need to place a secret bid, alongside carbon-intensive companies (the likes of NZ Steel, Fonterra and Fletcher Concrete) and finance traders.”
Stuff: Emissions Trading Scheme most durable path to net zero carbon goal
“The goal rather is to ensure that New Zealand complies with the climate change commitments it made in the Paris Agreements and in the Net Zero legislation.”
Transport
Way to go – Electrifying advice from the Climate Change Commission– Robert McLachlan –
“For the transport sector, which is responsible for half of New Zealand’s energy-related emissions, the commission suggests a sweeping set of changes to electrify the country’s car fleet and to replace imported fuels with local renewable electricity.
It’s exciting to see a national-level plan that actually cuts emissions. But it raises two questions: is it feasible, and is it the best or only option?”
Forbes: Cheap Batteries Could Soon Make Electric Freight Trucks 50% Cheaper To Own Than Diesel
“Heavy-duty trucks are an outsized polluter, considered one of transportation’s hardest-to-decarbonize aspects. But new research showing dramatic improvements in battery cost and technology mean zero-emission freight trucks are primed for electrification. This could bring a major clean energy success in the coming decade.”
Building and construction
Newsroom: Builders call for Govt to lead on green construction, Marc Daalder 12 March 2021
“The New Zealand Green Building Council has called on the Government to fulfil a key election promise on environmental standards in buildings.”
Marine
Stuff: New study shows seabed trawling releases more carbon dioxide than air travel
Trawling the ocean floor for fish releases more carbon in a year than the pre-Covid global aviation industry, according to new research.
Impact on Iwi
Newsroom: Comment: Climate action: Iwi farm, fish and forestry investments vulnerable
Iwi and hapū ؘface a new challenge: how to diversify beyond climate-sensitive primary industries as best they can, while respecting their cultural and historical roles as kaitiaki of the taonga in their own rohe.
Nature Based Solutions
IUCN: Nature-based Solutions for people and planet
IUCN: Strengthening nature-based solutions in national climate commitments
A report produced by IUCN and Oxford University presents an overview of the current level of ambition for nature within the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of the Paris Agreement, and highlights what more can be done to harness the full potential of nature-based solutions in future NDCs.
National Determined Contributions (NDC) under Paris Agreement
The Conversation: Climate emergency or not, New Zealand needs to start doing its fair share of climate action
“Following [the] climate emergency declaration, New Zealand will have to face up to the fact it has one of the worst climate records of industrialised nations.”
Climate Action Tracker: NDC – New Zealand
Showing New Zealand’s current commitment is not sufficient for 2oC future climate let alone a 1.5oC target.
Stuff: NZ must make a tougher climate pledge to the UN – independent report
“New Zealand’s climate pledge to the United Nations has been rated too weak by an independent assessment..”
Newsroom: Ratcheting up our international climate ambition
Analysis: The Climate Change Commission’s report found New Zealand’s emissions reduction target under the Paris Agreement is “not compatible with global efforts”