New Zealand just gained its very own version of the #volveremos movement.
Last year, in the second weeks of the Warsaw talks, an unprecedented coalition of social movements and NGOs formed and walked out, protesting the new low that negotiations had reached. In doing so, they promised to return stronger - which they did in Bonn earlier this month:
We are back, far more strengthened in giving voice to those who are already acting with the urgency needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change - the huge majority of civil society around the world that you, ministers, represent and can not ignore any longer.
Yesterday marked the birth of another unprecedented coalition of NGOs right here in New Zealand. Forest and Bird, Generation Zero, Greenpeace New Zealand, Oxfam New Zealand, WWF New Zealand, and 350 Aotearoa made history by launching the Climate Voter alliance, giving voice to the huge body of New Zealanders who care about climate change and telling our political parties to step their game up before our national election on 20 September 2014.
Click to see how many more have signed on already
In the first 24 hours after Climate Voter launched, over 8,000 New Zealanders signed on. Not since the Copenhagen day of action in 2009 have that many New Zealanders taken a stand on climate - and this time we’re still growing even bigger and getting even stronger. Climate change is now an election issue. It’s up to us to make it the election issue.
We’re back, and in under 100 days the election must be ours.
This is important, because New Zealand isn’t doing its bit on climate. With the Ban Ki Moon Summit this year and the Paris Conference coming up next year, this is a crucial time for international and domestic climate action, and we can do better. Rather than pushing for voluntarism disguised as bounded flexibility and further gutting our emissions trading scheme and Resource Management Act, New Zealand should seize this chance to build a smart, green economy.
Climate Voter is strictly non-partisan campaign - they even asked all political candidates to leave yesterday’s launch - but it’s important to see where each of our political parties stand on climate change. Let’s take a look at the three major parties’ stances.
The current Government, National, doesn’t have a climate change policy on its website. On the contrary, it promises to:
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Encourage oil and gas exploration while maintaining environmental standards.
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Reform resource management, reducing number of consents required and uncertainty of current regime.
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Improve environmental reporting
In reading that, remember this is the party that in 2009 gutted New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme and been chipping away at it since, rendering it meaningless. This is the government that buried our ETS’s integrity “in an unmarked grave somewhere.” We’re talking about a Government that has just opened up a dolphin sanctuary for oil exploration - even though only 55 Maui’s Dolphin still exist and the International Whaling Commission just told us that we aren’t doing enough to prevent their extinction.
As our government from 1999-2008, Labour have a chequered record on climate change. When a small island negotiator told me in 2011 that New Zealand had been “problematic for a thousand years“, Labour was the government he was talking about. But it’s most recent Policy Platform has some good things to say:
The most critical sustainability issue is climate change. It poses a severe threat to the =planet and to the future of humans and other species. Labour says that climate change must be tackled urgently and effectively, by way of a low-carbon economy in New Zealand and a comprehensive international climate change treaty.
To achieve this, Labour proposes expanding our emissions trading scheme to regain credibility “as an ‘all gases all sectors’ scheme, ultimately free from subsidies to greenhouse gas polluters” as it was originally designed. However, it is not clear whether Labour plans to put the cap that National took off in 2009 back on, turning it back into a meaningful cap and trade scheme.
Labour’s energy policy is the sort of thing we need to get to a smart, low-carbon economy:
Labour will prioritise the development of renewable and low-carbon energy technologies for a smooth transition away from our dependence on fossil fuels. With a strong base of existing renewable energy including hydro, geothermal, and wind, we believe all New Zealanders should benefit from our use of sustainable natural resources
More concerning is Labour’s take on the international talks. Labour promises only “to honour [our] international commitment to reduce our
gross greenhouse gas emissions“, which at this point doesn’t mean very much at all. Since we refused to take commitments under the Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, we haven’t exactly had much in the way of international commitments to honour. The big important question is what new commitments we will take on under a 2015 treaty - and Labour doesn’t have much to say on that.
The Greens climate policy is ambitious, clever, and very cunning. They launched it three weeks ago, and it involves five key components:
A goal of net carbon neutrality by 2050
The establishment of an independent Climate Commission to provide expert and independent advice to the government on: carbon prices, carbon budgets, and complementary measures to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050
The phasing out of the failed Emissions Trading Scheme and an initial price on carbon of: $25 per tonne on CO2 equivalent emissions for all sectors except agriculture. Dairy emissions will pay $12.50 per tonne. Forestry will be credited at $12.50 per tonne
The recycling of all revenue raised from a carbon charge back to families and businesses through a $2000 income tax-free band and a one percent company tax cut. The Climate Tax Cut will leave households better off
A suite of complementary measures to support the rapid transition to a carbon neutral economy
I have some reservations about switching from an emissions trading scheme to a carbon tax, because I’m concerned that changing tracks instead of fixing the track we’re on might slow us down when we need to be speeding up. But, politically, the plan is genius. The Green Party is to date the only party to have promised a tax cut going into this election. As Gareth Renowden notes, it takes much from Jim Hansen’s “tax and dividend” plan - but it repackages it in a politically persuasive gift box that has received support from some unlikely allies.
Voting matters
With such a divergence of policies, voting on climate matters.
It matters internationally. Last year, one of our negotiators claimed that a change in Government would change little on our international stance. But this year, another negotiator claimed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade hadn’t engaged in public consultation about what commitments we will bring to the table in Lima and beyond because policies were so uncertain until the election.
Practically, a change in Government means a change in Minister for International Climate Negotiations, and the Greens’ Kennedy Graham MP appears to be building a strong foundation for the role. Changing the Minister we send (or don’t - Groser did not attend Bonn) will inevitably change the negotiating stances we take.
But, back home, it matters even more. It determines whether we plan for the inevitable and unavoidable transition to a low carbon economy or prospect for oil in our forest parks and dolphin reserves. It determines whether we build uneconomic motorways or smart public transport infrastructure. And it determines whether we have an emissions trading scheme that quite literally subsidises pollution or a carbon tax that puts money back in real New Zealanders’ pockets.
Some people suggest that the election is a done deal, but I don’t agree. With unprecedented get out the vote campaigns launching, new coalitions forming, and polls that show a growing body of undecided voters, it looks more like things are just heating up.
To avoid any risk of breaching the Electoral Finance Act: Authorised by David Tong of 5/66 Emily Place, Auckland 1010.
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