Government sabotages its Emissions Reduction Plan

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, December 23rd, 2024 - 3 comments
Categories: climate change, Environment, local government, national, national/act government, same old national, science - Tags:

Nearly two weeks ago the Government released its lastest version of the country’s Emissions Reduction Plan.

The plan felt surreal. Carbon capture, utilisation and storage being introduced into the Emissions Trading Scheme was going to apparently help.

There was also National’s policy of 10,000 Electric Vehicle charging points by 2030 even though the estimate is that this will do little for the country’s climate goals. And the policy faces the prospect of stalling.

There was also Electrify New Zealand, something that Christopher Luxon mentions regularly. But it was only going to provide savings of 100,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions of the 3.2 million tonnes the ERP proposed to save.

Considerable reliance was placed on the handling of rubbish. The Government wanted to leverage the Waste Minimisation Fund to enable resource recovery systems and infrastructure to process organic waste and it wanted to “improve organic waste management and landfill gas capture to increase landfill gas recovery rates.”

Combined these proposals were going to reduce CO2 emissions by 1.8 million tonnes during the second emissions budget period. They were going to provide over half of the total emissions reductions budgeted on. By comparison EV charging points were going to reduce emissions by a paltry 10,000 tonnes of CO2.

The report indicated that the Government wanted to “work with the sector to further investigate how we dispose of and manage organic waste streams in order to … encourage diversion of organic materials from landfill”.

The report also stated the Government would “determine which landfill types accept which types of organic waste, and the impact on the waste disposal levy”.

So what does the Government sneak through and make no announcement about?

How about reductions to the funding of schemes that directly affect its ability to achieve these goals?

From Russell Palmer at Radio New Zealand:

The government has quietly cancelled plans to improve recycling and roll out a kerbside food scraps composting scheme.

The Ministry for the Environment on Wednesday posted an update on its website saying the government has agreed four of five policies for waste minimisation had been put on hold.

No ministerial media release or statement was sent out notifying the public of the decision.

The standardisation across the country of which materials can be included in recycling schemes took effect in February, but the remaining four policies “will no longer go ahead”.

These included:

  • Mandatory kerbside composting for all urban areas
  • Mandatory kerbside recycling for all urban areas
  • Requiring schemes to report on materials diverted from landfill
  • A performance standard for council recycling and composting schemes

While entities can apply to the Waste Minimisation Fund for assistance for these schemes the Crown contribution for the fund is being cut by $177.7 million over four years.

For the life of me I cannot understand how on the one hand the Government can propose significant savings in CO2 emissions so that it can meet its international goals but on the other hand undermine the very schemes that will actually achieve the reductions that it is proposing to make.

This Government’s Greenhouse gas policies are based on nothing but hot air which of itself is the last thing you need during a climate crisis.

3 comments on “Government sabotages its Emissions Reduction Plan ”

  1. Ffloyd 1
    23 December 2024 at 7:32 am

    What else do you expect from this load of garbage.

    Reply
  2. Bearded Git 2
    23 December 2024 at 8:06 am

    National's plan to rely on carbon capture is highly dubious. Carbon capture technology has been around a long time but to date carbon capture facilities only reduce CO2 emissions by 0.14%, and it is a complex process to achieve that.

    The captured CO2 is stored, often deep underground.

    "Around 45 commercial carbon capture and storage facilities are in operation worldwide, together capturing more than 50 million tonnes of CO2 each year, according to the International Energy Agency…..global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry currently sit at more than 35 billion tonnes per year."

    "Many environmental groups support carbon capture…..but have expressed fears that it could give oil and gas companies an excuse to keep burning fossil fuels if not properly controlled."

    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cden6k97n9xo

    Reply
  3. Barfly 3
    23 December 2024 at 8:20 am

    For the life of me I cannot understand how on the one hand the Government can propose significant savings in CO2 emissions so that it can meet its international goals but on the other hand undermine the very schemes that will actually achieve the reductions that it is proposing to make

    MS you should know by now they are just LYING

    Reply

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