It’s almost like we shouldn’t leave the climate crisis to the market

Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, November 28th, 2024 - 7 comments
Categories: climate change - Tags: , ,

In the news this week, SolarZero, the pioneering solar installation and subscription company, went into liquidation. Details in the Herald.

US investment company Black Rock are the current owners of SolarZero, they bought it 2022. Black Rock are also the company that the recent Labour government partnered with for the government’s climate investment fund. Because hey, global capitalists want to be green, and can be trusted to look after nature, right?

Other people can do the analysis on why SolarZero fell over. I will note that the Herald piece has zero mentions of the climate crisis, so I expect most of what will get said will be divorced from why SolarZero existed in the first place. Hint, it wasn’t just another investment opportunity.

James Shaw did his best in setting up a range of structures and processes to help New Zealand transition to a post-carbon economy, so we would meet our international obligations in preventing the worst of the climate catastrophe and we would have more resilience in what is already locked in. Merely swapping fossil fuels for green tech won’t save us (it’s energy intensive and we’re already in serious overshoot), but we do need a certain level of renewables to make transition viable and it makes sense for parties in parliament to work with what they’ve got.

The problem with Shaw’s vision of using the tools of capitalism to shift out of overshoot is that it was dependent on a big enough percentage of the population understand the climate crisis well enough to vote for progressive parties who will actually progress. Instead we have a regressive death cult in charge of the country, and New Zealand citizens seem more concerned about maintaining a certain lifestyle than say preventing their grandkids from having the worst life imaginable.


The solutions to the climate crisis lie in the Powerdown, where we take the best of our long human history of technology, integrate it into sustainability and resiliency models, stop all the consumerist bullshit and learn to live within our means. We cannot buy and sell our way out of environmental destruction, we have seen over and over again that this doesn’t work.

But we can still have good lives. They will just look quite different to what we have now. The blocks to resolving the climate and ecology crises are social and political, not technical or economic. In New Zealand, we have a high percentage of people that want more action on climate. What we lack is enough leadership and vision that acknowledges the seriousness of the situation and shows us a way through. Labour have been dragging the chain with its clinging to neoliberal centrism, but it’s the left and swing voters that keep giving them the power to do this. We have plenty of people here that know what to do, we’re just not giving the power to the right people.

The best work at the moment is happening in communities. When the shit hits the fan and our capitalist society starts to more noticeably collapse, being able to work with a wide range of people in our communities is what will get us through. The good news is that every community in New Zealand now has many people who have some understanding of the Powerdown or similar concepts, and have been developing the structures and process by which we get to survive.

I feel for the SolarZero employees who were blindsided this week, and for the customers who don’t know what is going to happen to their investment and contract. It’s going to be harder for people to trust solar going forward, which of course serves the death cult. But the whole reliance on the market was never going to get us out of the mess we are in, because the Market is God mentality is the main driver of the problem.

If it’s all too depressing, go read the things that are working (follow the tags),

Doughnut Economics

Regenerative Agriculture

Hope Punk

What if…?

7 comments on “It’s almost like we shouldn’t leave the climate crisis to the market ”

  1. tsmithfield 1
    28 November 2024 at 8:44 am

    We had a look at Solar Zero and decided it wasn't worth it, all things considered. There were a lot of fishhooks. And, there model was problematic in situations such as selling our house. Also, we didn't think that the projected savings justified the ongoing cost.

    So, it may be something to do with their model more than anything else.

    I still don't understand why the government isn't subsidising solar on roofs. Surely, that would be a lot cheaper than building massive solar farms around the place. And may have made models such as what Solar Zero were promoting more viable.

    Reply
    • gsays 1.1
      28 November 2024 at 9:01 am

      "I still don't understand why the government isn't subsidising solar on roofs"

      I commented about this yesty. The ‘market ' wants Solar Zero out of the loop. The market wants monopoly, the shareholders want a dividend. The system is working as intended.

      Reply
  2. gsays 2
    28 November 2024 at 8:54 am

    Thanks (again) weka, for bringing this to our attention.

    Kate Rowarth's doughnut economics is the best alternative I've heard. We do need a 'drier' messager though. Being urged to sing is going to make it easier for a lot of Kiwi folk dismiss the message.

    Hearing Gareth Hughes on The Working Group on Tuesday was refreshing. He cut through Grant's tedious, money money, last century thinking.

    It pays to skip the bits where Damien Grant is talking, it’s the same oratory over and over.

    Also Rena Williams was a breath of fresh air
    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/11/26/8pm-live-tonight-the-working-group-with-arena-williams-gareth-hughes-and-damien-grant/

    Reply
  3. Dennis Frank 3
    28 November 2024 at 9:17 am

    If not the market, the state: that's the trad binary. We could use a warp factor to shift it up a gear: generative AI. Trad statist thought uses socialism as default: create a ministry of climate change, jam it full of useless bureaucrats to ensure it is permanently dysfunctional, whilst presenting voters with the illusion of progress.

    Such traditional leftism can be replaced by intelligent design. The viability of the gen AI option is appraised here: https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/11/27/the-rise-and-rise-of-generative-ai/

    This year, the AI Forum New Zealand, in conjunction with the Victoria University of Wellington and Callaghan Innovation, surveyed 232 New Zealand organisations to measure their use of, and views on, AI.8 The survey found that 67% of respondents reported using AI in their organisations, and 96% of respondents agreed that AI has made workers more efficient in their work.

    So instead of just another wanker addicted to normalcy, the ministry would be supervised by a clever robot, doing intelligent design of ops according to plan. Actual public service instead of the usual pretend shit. Oversight by an independent panel would help sell credibilility, especially if a suitable procedure for amending tweaks is designed in…

    Reply
  4. Bearded Git 4
    28 November 2024 at 9:19 am

    The market is actually doing a pretty good job in California, Texas and Oz where massive solar farms with (importantly) attached storage has taken off. That is because solar is now the cheapest option.

    Oz also has very high rooftop solar though this may have been helped by subsidies. The government should get involved in NZ re rooftop solar.

    The ability to store energy via massive batteries means we don't need Lake Onslow. Storage attached to solar means we can better manage the water in our lakes meaning even in dry years NZ will be fine.

    And as I said yesterday, a new solar farm with half a million panels and attached storage has just been applied for in the Maniototo…the sheep graze around and under the panels. There are several fast-tracked proposals for large scale solar. This, and subsidised rooftop,is the solution.

    Reply
    • Tiger Mountain 4.1
      28 November 2024 at 9:44 am

      Agree Git. There is a recently completed solar farm in Far North and more to come…
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/far-north-to-get-third-solar-farm-as-renewable-energy-reputation-grows/CYK3MKG7I5AV7PKE5DJMBSDKSY/#google_vignette

      I have panels on a North facing outbuilding at our Far North home, and they dropped in price while waiting for install so got a big storage battery too. Magic, charge the wife's EV and run everything with a back up circuit for power cuts.

      There remains so much to do with power gen and supply–re-nationalisation! At Ngawha Springs geothermal generates enough power for the Far North–but due to dated network design it gets fed into national grid. Hence when the pylon went down recently causing lengthy power cuts there was no way to access our “own” power. Rio Tinto needs to get the boot too, they have bludged for decades. But experts say that the network would need major upgrades to be able to send current smelter electricity elsewhere.

      Reply

Leave a Comment

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.