Scrapped climate policies would make 'very small' contribution to reducing emissions – Hipkins

The prime minister has denied axed environmental schemes have been a waste of money which should never have been started.

Chris Hipkins on Monday announced the second set of government programmes to be cut, trimmed or delayed, expected to save $1 billion.

Among the programmes on the chopping block were the clean car upgrade scheme and social leasing car scheme.

Hipkins said $568 million would be saved from the clean car upgrade scheme.

He told Morning Report he wants to get more bang for the buck out of the spending and denied he was kicking important decisions down the road.

"We want to make sure that the investments we're making in the climate change space deliver the best bang for buck and are actually going to make the biggest contribution for reducing our emissions.

"They (the scrapped policies) were actually going to make a very, very small contribution to our overall emissions reduction targets."

"When they were come up with they were estimated to make a bigger contribution and to be easier to implement."

The programmes were estimated to make a bigger contribution than they actually would, he said, and was clear they would not be particularly easy to implement, he said.

Hipkins could not say how much it cost to do the work to develop the policies.

The money put aside for climate change and the work done on the cost of living did not need to be mutually exclusive, he said.

It was money that would go back into the Budget process, he said.

"I want us to be focused on the issues that are most important to New Zealanders at the moment."

The National Party supports scrapping the climate policies, its deputy leader Nicola Willis told Morning Report.

"For a long time we've raised concern that these initiatives, when you judge them by how much money you're spending per tonne of emissions removed from the economy basis, they are not very efficient.

"If we are to meet our reduction goals in a way that allows our economy to remain strong, we've got to be really careful about our emission policies and these weren't careful enough."

The key thing National wanted to do was accelerate the electrification of New Zealand, Willis said.

She said it may need to buy some emission credits.

The major barriers to shifting away from fossil fuels were "regulations and red tape", she said.

The party wants to continue to mine for gas.

It was about being pragmatic and practical, she said.

"We want to decarbonise the economy, we want to see much more renewable energy in this economy, we also want to see much more electrification in this economy."

'Incredibly disappointing'

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson told Morning Report she disagrees with Hipkin's claims it was too expensive to prioritise climate action and support those who are struggling financially.

"It is clear that it is only the Green Party who will always prioritise strong action on both climate and inequality," she said.

Scrapping the programmes of work was "incredibly disappointing", she said.

On their own, they contribute "somewhat" to reducing climate emission and are targeting low income households but altogether they "make an important, significant contribution towards reducing our climate, having a stable one for generations to come and that is why we need more Green MPs influencing the Cabinet decisions".

Greens want to see a more permanent increase to support for low income households, she said.

A stable climate would impact on low income people the most, she said.

Taking action to rebalance wealth was also the solution to taking stronger action on climate, she said.

On National's assertion that gas could play a role in reducing emissions, Davidson said: "It absolutely is not, we don't need it, it needs to stay where it is."

Political poll

The latest 1News Kantar Public Poll sees Labour losing 2 percentage points, on 36 percent, and National losing 3, on 34 percent, with the Greens rising four points to 11 percent.

Labour could form a government with the support of the Greens and Te Pāti Māori, according to the poll.

Hipkins said Labour had worked with Te Pāti Māori "relatively constructively" over the past could of years.

"I'm certainly open to continue the conversation with them."

Willis said National expects to go up and down in the polls ahead of the election.

Davidson said she was pleased to see the poll and the party would continue to be an independent voice in Parliament.

"We want to influence the ... next government no matter what."