Eric Crampton • Dec 16, 2020 •
My Dom Post column this week makes the case for a carbon dividend. Canada imposes a carbon tax on provinces that haven’t established their own carbon pricing regime, and is set to substantially hike the tax to $170/tonne. How is it politically feasible? Money collected in each province is sent back as a grant to residents in each province. Carbon … Read More
Robert McLachlan • Dec 02, 2020 •
Following this week’s climate emergency declaration, New Zealand will have to face up to the fact it has one of the worst climate records of industrialised nations. Of 43 industrialised countries — known as Annex 1 countries — 31 are experiencing a drop in emissions. But 12 have seen net emissions increase between 1990 and 2018, and New … Read More
Eric Crampton • Dec 20, 2019 •
Eloise Gibson covers the carbon costs of tourism over at Newsroom: But in reality: “value-led tourism growth may actually worsen those pressures that are linked with consumption. Higher-value visitors, by definition, consume more goods and services, all of which have an associated greenhouse gas and solid waste footprint. To the extent that these goods and services are relatively energy … Read More
Guest Author • Aug 28, 2019 •
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz Would you please explain how the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) works in simple terms? Who pays and … Read More
Robert McLachlan • May 02, 2019 •
We know what we have to do to beat climate change: electrify everything, and stop investing in things that burn fossil fuels. In New Zealand, that has been hard to do. Thirty years of climate policy have left us with only two main tools: the Emissions Trading Scheme, and an ‘aspirational’ target of 90% renewable electricity by 2025. The ETS … Read More
Eric Crampton • Oct 09, 2018 •
New Zealand has an emissions trading scheme. It isn’t perfect. But for the sectors covered by the ETS, including transport, best policy for reducing carbon dioxide emissions is fairly simple: buy and retire credits. The government simply cannot know whether the cheapest way of reducing CO2 emissions is by getting the least efficient cars off the road; having people switch … Read More
Eric Crampton • Sep 28, 2018 •
MBIE’s advice on Labour’s ban on Taranaki oil and gas exploration suggested that global emissions could go up. Could that happen? It depends on what you think’s going on in the rest of the world. Suppose that the whole world were under a binding emissions cap under a global cap and trade regime. If New Zealand produced less natural … Read More
Guest Author • Aug 14, 2018 •
Catherine Leining, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research To chart a successful future for the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS), we need to understand its present and its past. Researchers from Motu Economic and Public Policy Research have published a new Guide to the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. This guide covers the basics of how … Read More
Public Health Expert • Apr 17, 2018 •
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Tony Blakely, Dr Amanda Jones, Dr Linda Cobiac, Dr Nhung Nghiem, Dr Anja Mizdrak, Dr Cristina Cleghorn The New Zealand Government has set up a Tax Working Group to consider reforms of the tax system. In this blog we briefly discuss some of the opportunities for tax reform that will potentially improve health and lower … Read More
Brendan Moyle • Sep 01, 2017 •
Climate change is one of the NZ election issues of this year. With that in mind, the Science Media Centre asked the parties the following question: How will your party meet the goals of the Paris Agreement? How will agriculture be accounted for in climate change adaptation and mitigation? What are your plans for the Emissions Trading Scheme? Introduction … Read More