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
Michael Reddell • May 24, 2017 •
I’ve never had that much interest in climate change. Perhaps it comes from living in Wellington. If average local temperatures were a couple of degrees warmer here most people would be quite happy. And as successive earthquakes seem to have the South Island pushing under the North Island, raising the land levels around here – you can … Read More
Simon Johnson • Sep 02, 2016 •
The Morgan Foundation’s Geoff Simmons has done a whiteboard Friday video on Minister for Climate Change Issues Paula Bennett’s claim that the surplus emission units are not tainted by the 97 million fake Russian and Ukrainian emission reduction units that the Climate Cheats report of April 2016 showed had been handed to the Government under the … Read More
Mr February • Mar 01, 2016 •
Simon Johnson looks at ‘fix the ETS’ metaphors and argues that trying to incrementally ‘save’ or ‘fix’ the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme will ensure it remains ineffective in reducing domestic emissions for decades. Politically, its just flogging the dead horse. We don’t have time for a unending institutionalised cultural conflict over ‘fixing the NZETS’ like the one we have had … Read More
Guest Author • Oct 05, 2009 •
A paper by Dr George Preddey, Physicist, futurist, tertiary teacher, disaster manager, education policy analyst, international consultant (retired), environmental activist and marathoner Global Economic Crisis and Copenhagen – missed chances for averting a human catastrophe? ’If at first an idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.’ ’We shall require a substantially new way … Read More