It’s time for sensible climate action

It's time to simplify our climate action with proven tools to reduce net emissions, according to Energy Resources Aotearoa in their submission on the Government's emissions discussion document.

"We support the goal of net zero, but the pathway proposed is becoming far too complicated to actually achieve this," says chief executive John Carnegie.

"A key problem is too much focus on reducing gross emissions which leads to costly and unnecessary policies. Net emissions is all that matters to the climate, and what the legislation requires.

"Proposing dozens of different Government strategies and hands-on actions across different sectors will just be impossible to deliver.

"Instead, the ETS is clearly the best tool because it puts a price on emissions across nearly every sector. It lets people make their own decisions on how best to lower emissions, instead of picking winners and gambling on which future technologies might succeed.

"We also have to consider the ETS now has a cap on total emissions allowed, meaning that many other policies like subsidies for e-vehicles cannot lower our total emissions - only shuffle around where they occur.

"This is known as the 'waterbed effect', because pushing down in one area means emissions pop up in other areas. Given this neutralising effect, it's incumbent on policymakers to demonstrate the effect of each and every one of its proposals on net emissions."