Jacinda Adern’s madcap vision for New Zealand’s “Green” future
Everything speaks to moral bankruptcy and unacknowledged economic collapse
This was back in June
Climate Commission recommends shift to electric cars, large-scale agricultural reform and an end to reliance on gas in homes
New Zealand has been handed a new vision for dramatic reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions – including reduced animal numbers on farms, no new household gas connections by 2025, and a dramatic shift to electric cars in the next decade.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the climate crisis was a matter of “life or death” as she spoke at the release of a new roadmap for the government’s response to global heating.
The Climate Commission, an independent body set up to advise the government, released its final advice on Wednesday – a sweeping document outlining what New Zealand must do if it wants to meet its target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and reducing biogenic methane emissions by 24%-47%.
Back in November, 2019 the government passed the Zero Carbon Bill, which looks at moving to electric cars and electric everything.
The Government’s Zero Carbon Bill passed with near-unanimous support on Thursday, after National agreed to support the climate change law.
‘The Government will not hold back’: Jacinda Ardern on how NZ could go zero carbon
By 2032, new homes won’t have gas connections, we’ll be cycling twice as much, and you won’t be able to import a petrol car, under a blueprint for making the whole country carbon neutral.
What we would get under the plan is lower household energy bills (for most people), better health, quieter streets, cleaner water and better biodiversity, because swathes of land will have been planted in government-subsidised native trees.
The Climate Change Commission has released its draft plan for slashing New Zealand’s emissions, warning we must move faster if we’re to do our share internationally and get carbon neutral by 2050.
In recent days the IPCC has come out with the most dire report about the climate:
Climate change: What the new IPCC report says is in store for New Zealand
The latest report from the UN’s climate change body is being described as “frank and blunt”, “sobering and authoritative” and “nothing but bad news” by Kiwi scientists who have read it.
One even said they felt “a little sick” at times, and that it was time for politicians to “do their job” and fix it.
The epic AR6 Climate Change 2021 – Sixth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is nearly 4000 pages, bringing together years of research from climate scientists from around the world
New Zealand climate change response criticism ‘unfair’ – Ardern
Prime Minister, Jacinda Adern who earlier called climate change ‘life or death’ was defensive and stated:
“It would be unfair to judge New Zealand based on what essentially were targets that were set some time ago when we are now undertaking an incredibly heavy piece of work to lift our ambition and lift our emissions reductions.”
“We already have made tough and big decisions. The Zero Carbon Act. The decision we have made to bring agriculture [into the Emissions Trading Scheme] – no other country in the world has done that, but by doing that we maintain our position as being world-leading and trying to tackle some of the by-products from food production.”
The Greens want to go even faster and say the report is a “wake-up call”:
“I do think that we could go further faster … we will be coming out to the public in the next couple of months and talking to them about the plans that we’ve got.
“I do hope that last night’s report helps to galvanise those members of the public who are concerned about climate change because you can see there is also some resistance out there.”
By contrast, National Party leader Judith Collins, when asked about the IPCC report, used it as an example to continue to criticise the government over its handling of energy supply problems.
“I thought that it showed just how badly this government’s handled it. The IPCC for instance and the Climate Change Commissioner have been very clear that natural gas is a transition fuel, it is also very important to New Zealand,” she said.
“Our renewables have gone down while our coal burning has gone up.”
Although the National Party is at its heart only reluctantly embracing climate change and reducing everything to Business-as Usual (something that is increasingly difficult under international pressure the Labour Party is playing a game of “let’s pretend we’re moving” while either doing nothing or actually moving to destroy the entire fabric of New Zealand society after a generation of neo-liberal policies that have been massively destructive.
Despite their overall political position they are absolutely correct in much of their critique. Firstly, Labour and the Greens want to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles and have us all driving electric vehicles as well as phase out clean-burning natural gas and move to all-electric.
New Zealand has had sustainable sources of electricity in the form of hydroelectric power (albeit with large ecological cost) for as long as I have been alive. Despite various crises with hydroelectric power generation due to weather events, we have always had enough with some level of coal generation in the North Island.
You do not have to be a specialist in the field to realise that without the government’s new ‘go electric’ policies we already have a problem; there is a high likelihood that because of the very thing they claim to be fighting, there is going to be less snow in the future to fill the hydro lakes. Just as we have the government touting electric we have this stark reality
Climate change: New Zealand burns most coal for electricity in nearly a decade
New Zealand burned more coal for electricity production in the first quarter of this year than any quarter in nearly a decade.
The revelation comes the day after a “transformational” climate change report that slated successive governments for its inaction on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that continue to rise.
The latest New Zealand Energy Quarterly for the period January-March 2021, released today, showed the amount of coal burned for electricity production had more than doubled from the previous quarter to nearly 430,000 tonnes.
This was the highest burned in a quarter since 2012, and helped bring the overall share of renewable energy down to 79 per cent, three percentage points lower than this time last year.
The government rejects the obvious truth of what the Nats are saying the Government was stockpiling coal as a result of the drier La Niña weather pattern New Zealand is currently experiencing.
In other words, they are blaming the situation on….climate change!
“It’s utterly false to try and suggest that the current stockpiling of coal by electricity companies to manage the country’s dry year storage problem and production decline of an existing gas field, has anything to do with the ban on future exploration of oil and gas,” she said.
“This idea was debunked at the election campaign when the National Party suggested it, and it’s still false. It is a market response to current conditions.”
She then goes into a convoluted argument that there are “specific factors” that have led to:
“a small decrease in the share of electricity generated from renewable sources, with the electricity market responding by utilising thermal generation (including coal) to help conserve water in hydro lakes and manage supply security ahead of winter. increases.”
A kind of “the dog ate my breakfast” sort of argument.
The people who administer the electricity market blame “low hydro lake storage levels and less wind.”
“With below-normal rainfall, hydro generation was down 9 per cent on the back of lower hydro lake storage levels and generators preparing for a drier than usual winter.
This factor, coupled with a tight gas supply which saw an 18 per cent drop in the past year, saw higher coal imports to meet demand for electricity generation.”
If this is the case how are things going to be when they have everyone driving electric cars? It is clear that it will collapse the energy infrastructure.
While we have lower lake levels, an 18 % drop in the gas market leading to more burning of dirty coal, the very thing, if we are serious about “combatting climate change” a cold patch in the country has led to crisis:
Cities and towns across the North Island were plunged into darkness on one of the coldest nights of the year, after nationwide demand for electricity reached an all-time high.
Power generation failed to meet demand across New Zealand on Monday evening. Tens of thousands of households were affected by mass power cuts as a result.
The national grid operator Transpower declared a “grid emergency” at 7pm and asked local distribution companies to reduce load on their networks, a spokeswoman for the organisation, Deborah Gray, said.
Widespread power outage in the middle of winter – thousands affected
Electricity authorities announced that demand for power had reached “an all-time high”, and they did not have enough generation in the system to maintain that demand.
Up to 20,000 households were plunged into darkness and, in some cases, left without heating after high winds brought down power lines and cold weather saw power use surge beyond generation capacity.
In the midst of all of this PM Jacinda Adern wants to give rebates for the importation of electric cars and to impose penalties on utes, used by farmers who are the backbone of the New Zealand economy as it is. Just about every farmer and every tradesman uses utes.
Jacinda Ardern considered exemption for utes in electric car incentive scheme but ruled it out
In a bid to increase the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs), the Government will give rebates or discounts of up to $8625 for newly imported electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles from July 1. Used EVs will fetch discounts of up to $3450.
The discounts will only apply to vehicles below $80,000 and the vehicle must have a three-star safety rating. The second-hand market will not be affected.
The Government has come under fire from farmers and tradies who say the incentive scheme is an unfair tax on them as no electric alternatives are available for their work vehicles.
“We gave them really strong consideration and we’re very genuine in that, because we recognise that there wasn’t an alternative in the market right now,” Ardern told reporters on Wednesday.
But Ardern confirmed she’s ruling out exemptions for utes.
And then we have the question of natural gas. Not only Judith Collins is saying it but a friend of ours who is perhaps the country’s foremost spokesperson and activist on energy affairs, says natural gas is a very good form of energy, especially in a transition period.
Yet this is what the government wants.
Refining NZ shareholders vote to close Marsden Point refinery, transition to import-only fuel terminal
Shareholders of the New Zealand Refining Company have voted almost unanimously in favour of approving the company’s transition to becoming an import-only fuel terminal.
Refining NZ has been New Zealand’s only oil refinery since it was established in 1961, but after a decline in refining margins the company initiated a strategic review of the business in April 2020.
Shareholders voted on Friday to determine the future business model and capital structure, with CEO Naomi James confirming the results this afternoon.
I am not the only one to see the consequence of this:.
Plans for a $250m shutdown of the country’s only refinery are already well advanced. Photo credit: File Image
The government has been warned that closing down the country’s only oil refinery could expose New Zealand to fuel security risks.
The Energy Minister said these risks are not significant, but a consultant’s report to the government says the opposite.
The risks centre on reconfigured supply chain, meaning the country would hold significantly less fuel because it held no crude awaiting processing.
Officials have sought a review of the risks to a reconfigured supply chain from a pandemic, natural disaster or regional war.
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After a generation of privatisation and neglect, a polluting paper mill is closing, further adding to the destruction of resilience
Kawerau Tasman paper mill closes amid questions on contamination
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Coronavirus, Carter Holt Harvey Whangārei mill closure ‘couldn’t be worse’ for industry
Workers at Carter Holt Harvey’s Whangārei mill are “disappointed” with the company’s announcement confirming the mill’s closure, union representatives say.
On Monday, CHH Timber chief executive Clayton Harris confirmed a final decision had been made to close the mill, with the loss of 111 jobs, after consultation started in January.
The closure was disappointing and a “double-whammy” for the industry which is already under stress from coronavirus, said Northern Amalgamated Workers Union secretary Maurice Davis.
And Maori attempts to fight a water bottling plant by a Chinese company have failed.
Not only was this allowed to happen it was encouraged:
Chinese water giant Nongfu Spring was courted by Government officials as public opposition grew
Government officials aggressively pursued a Chinese water bottling giant to invest in New Zealand, even while public opposition grew. Now, multiple legal challenges hope to stem the rapidly growing industry. Charlie Mitchell reports.
One of China’s wealthiest men was being welcomed onto a marae in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.
Shanshan Zhong had plans for a small kiwifruit orchard 10 minutes away, in Otakiri, a rural area outside Whakatāne.
After the powhiri, Zhong met with kaumātua of the local iwi, Ngāti Awa, and told them his company would be good for the community – and mana whenua would be offered jobs first.
It marked another stop on what had been a short but swift effort to expand his gigantic business outside of China, a plan that had brought him to this unlikely place.
All of this has been to ignore Agenda-21 and Agenda 2030 which the government is following to the letter while for the public it is treated (like the WEF’s Great Reset) by the government as a conspiracy theory.
Here is a piece I wrote some weeks ago.
HOW THE NEW ZEALAND LOCAL AND NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS ARE IMPLEMENTING THE UN AGENDA 2030 GOVERNMENT
