Climate change plan on emissions reduction attacked from all sides over lack of detail, ambition
The Government's major plan to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been pulled apart by critics on all sides of the political spectrum, with even the Climate Change Minister admitting he'd like it to go further. The National Party has criticised a lack of detail - particularly around the flagship electric vehicle "scrap and replace" scheme targeted at low-income whanau, the number of "plans about plans" and "corporate welfare" for businesses it says should already be making the changes required. Meanwhile, Te Pati Maori says the plan is not ambitious enough, lacks detail on addressing inequities and has hit out at the omission of the agriculture sector, which makes up half of the country's emissions. The Government has hit back, Climate Change Minister James Shaw saying the most important thing was that there was now a plan in place, and he was confident it would deliver the emissions reductions required. However, the Green Party co-leader told reporters if it was a Green-only government it would have looked a lot different. "By definition, it has a Labour hue to it," he said. The plan, unveiled on Monday, outlines how Aotearoa can do its bit toward tackling a climate crisis fast approaching the symbolic 1.5C threshold and reaching the target net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It seeks to do so first by meeting three emissions budgets initially out to 2035 - the first to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 11.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the next four years - which have Parliamentary support. Responding to criticism over agriculture's omission from any major reductions and $710 million windfall despite not contributing to the Emissions Trading Scheme that funds it, Shaw said he had long been frustrated by the "extremely slow" action from the sector. While it was intended agriculture joined the ETS, which puts a price on greenhouse gas emissions, this was first mooted in 2000. However, Shaw said he still backed the plan, saying many of the initiatives were Green policy. "There are many initiatives that are in the [plan] that coincidentally look quite a lot like Green Party policy that we have run on over many, many years. "Ultimately, if you want to say we're going to reduce emissions, these are the kinds of answers that you would come up with." National Party leader Christopher Luxon said his party was committed to the targets and budgets, but disagreed with the plan to get there. He said they would support the Climate Commission - which Act opposes - and would provide a "fully-costed" alternative emissions reduction plan ahead of the next election. National remained opposed to agriculture being in the ETS, but Luxon said they were looking forward to hearing recommendations from the He Waka Eke Noa process, a industry-led effort on reducing emissions, expected later this month. Luxon said no other country in the world included agriculture in such schemes, and so it had to be done in a way that did not disadvantage the sector. National did support the funding for the sector, which would further investigate how to reduce emissions and set up a new research centre. However, Luxon said funding for other sectors, where how to reduce emissions was more clear, was "corporate welfare". Deputy leader Nicola Willis said the plan overall lacked detail, and took aim at the $569m for the Clean Car Upgrade - a scheme to shift low-income households to electric and hybrid vehicles, building on the feebate scheme. Transport Minister Michael Wood has said the threshold for the scheme would be about the median household income - "about $75,000 or so", but with further work to come. It would apply to vehicles eight years old or less, and costing $35,000 and below, he said, with a discount of $10,000. A trial would fund 2500 vehicles, with the rest of the funding set aside to expand it. Willis said however with none of that certain and little other detail, including how much the grants would be nor what cars would be eligible, it was impossible to say if it would work or not. Already industry experts have indicated even with discounts the costs of EVs couple remain prohibitively high for many households , and raised concerns over the electricity network's ability to power it all, with another goal being 30 per cent of all light vehicles being electric - or "low emission" - by 2035. Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, co-leader of Te Pati Maori which was the only party to oppose the emissions budgets along with Act, said they expected something "a lot more ambitious". "We have a Government that has quite a strong mandate, we expected something that would be a lot more inclusive of grassroots, of those who struggle. "We expected to see less cows, less methane so we're disappointed in that sense. It's a start, but we expected a hell of a lot more boldness." While the plan's first two chapters were dedicated to empowering Maori and ensuring equity in climate action, Ngarewa-Packer said there was very little detail, and rather plans to develop plans and strategies. "We don't need to see two tracks down the line, we need to see an ambitious plan now. "Where's the detail for tangata whenua? Where's the detail for low income whanau? Where's the detail for grassroots? "It's not there." Energy Minister Megan Woods, speaking on behalf of the Government in a special debate on the topic, called out the National Party position opposing the plan despite supporting other climate efforts. "If you sign up to the budgets, you've got to have a plan for how to reduce the emissions "They need to put the detail on the table and tell us what they would do differently. "It is simply lazy rhetoric to call it corporate welfare. "It is a party not standing by what it has signed up to when it will not accept the difficult things that we have to do as a country to truly meet our carbon budgets." 'If I return to visit my dying mother I will be arrested on the spot.'