Scott Simpson, New Zealand's National Party environment spokesman, stunned a trans-Tasman investment meeting last week by stating that climate action was "too important to be playing politics with".
Or rather, it was the Australian delegates who were shocked, so used are they to the toxic debates in Canberra.
"It made my jaw drop, that's for sure," said Emma Herd, chief executive of the Investor Group on Climate Change.
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Agriculture accounts for half of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions - and will be the central to that country's climate action. Credit: Grant Matthew
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That Mr Simpson hails from the centre-right opposition party roughly equivalent to our Liberal-National coalition only underscored the contrast between the nations.
New Zealand's major parties, busy trying to thrash out a Zero Carbon Bill by year's end, are dismayed by the absence of similar bipartisanship across the Tasman, James Shaw, climate change minister in the Labor-led government told Fairfax Media.
“We do tend to look at what’s going on in Australia politics, in particular in relation to climate policies, and we think, 'We cannot afford to let this happen in New Zealand'," Mr Shaw said. "It seems like a pretty strong lesson in what not to do.”
Despite ditching its main climate and energy policy – the National Energy Guarantee aimed at reducing carbon emissions from the power sector while bolstering the grid and easing prices – the Morrison government insists it can achieve Australia's Paris climate commitments.
"The government will meet its 2030 target through our scalable policies, and will do so without compromising the economy," Melissa Price, the environment minister, said. The goal of reducing 2005-level emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030 "is responsible, achievable and comparable to other developed countries"
'Whole world must act'
Even if total emissions were the issue, Kiwis would have more excuse than Australians for doing nothing. Their share of global greenhouse gases is less than 0.2 per cent, or about a eighth of Australia's.
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| James Shaw, New Zealand's climate change minister, says even small nations much do their part. Credit: Ross Giblin |
Tally up the 90-odd nations contributing less than 1 per cent of emissions and you reach almost a third of the global total – larger than China or the US, he says.
“An issue like this is something the whole world has to grapple with," Todd Muller, Mr Shaw's counterpart from the National Party, says.
In government, the National Party signed up to the Paris climate accord and introduced an emissions trading scheme.
To remove the politics from the negotiations, all sides agreed to take advice on New Zealand's targets from an independent climate commission. (Australia has a Climate Change Authority but all the original board members have been replaced since it was set up by the Gillard government and its role as an advocate for action has largely disappeared.)
“If you have essentially your best and your brightest informed by science ... it’s an easier place to have a conversation with your community than just playing partisan politics with them,” Mr Muller said.
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Todd Muller, the National Party's climate spokesman says all nations must act to tackle global warming. Credit: Grant Matthew
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"They are playing an absolute straight bat," he said. "There’s a genuine best effort to get a consensus outcome.”
New Zealanders, like Australians, have endured an increasing spate of extreme weather events, which the government attributes in part to climate change. These include a record hot year in 2016, droughts and a major forest fire last year.
"We've definitely had a lot more extreme rainfall events," Nava Fedaeff, a climate scientist with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), said. These include damaging ex-tropical cyclones hitting the nation, with the average jumping from less than one a year to three over the last summer season.
Farmers, who have in the past objected fiercely to taxes on methane, appear more ready to accept the need to act. DairyNZ, for instance, has welcomed the prospect of emissions targets enshrined in legislation to give the sector "much needed certainty".
Trish Rankin, a dairy farmer managing 440 cows for a Maori-owned co-operative near Hawera in the Taranaki region of the North Island, said climate action "needs to be apolitical – it needs to be able to last over time".
Ms Rankin said New Zealand farmers realise their social licence depends on them being good custodians of the land, and the principle extends to curbing emissions. Open consultations with experts have also helped.
"If you know they are listening to you, you're more likely to listen to them," she said.
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| Whether NZ stands for New Zealand and Net Zero emissions will hinge largely on what happens in its agriculture sector. Credit: AP |
Bill Hare, director of Climate Analytics, notes New Zealand's existing climate policies are insufficient, but the nation appears to be "moving to a much better space".
Steps already taken include the ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration, and in prospect are five-year interim emissions targets and a more ambitious emissions trading scheme.
Mr Hare is optimistic that because Australian levels of public support for climate action including renewable energy are not so dissimilar to New Zealand's, policies will eventually converge.
"Farming wants to see some serious action", he says, while recent reports suggest the power sector isn't going to wait for the government to move on emissions cuts either.
New Zealand's climate minister, Mr Shaw, says farmers – unlike Australian coal companies – have options.
“People are still going to want to eat in 30 years' time, so the question is what do you produce and how do you produce it – not whether or not you’re going to produce food," he said.
"But in 30 years' time, you can pretty much guarantee no one in the world is going to use coal for anything.”
Links
- 'Next decade critical': Perils mount at 1.5 degrees of warming, says IPCC
- 'Terrible': Rising gas output lifts Australia's greenhouse gas emissions
- Malcolm Turnbull blames Morrison, Cormann for $443m Reef Foundation grant
- The economic case for climate action is strong
- States' climate risks are rising, led by health impacts: Moody's
- Approvals would lift NSW coal output by 2 billion tonnes, defy IPCC
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