New Zealand has committed to reducing its carbon emissions to half its 2005 levels by 2030 under the Paris Agreement, but there is fierce division about how to get there - or if it can be done. Photo: Supplied/ Unsplash - Mudit Agarwal
The Green Party's new plan for tackling climate change will cut five times more carbon emissions than the government by 2030, it says.
The party released its own Emissions Reduction Plan - He Ara Anamata on Sunday, saying people and the health of the planet need to be fostered together, or both would be exhausted.
Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said acting in the best interest of both the environment and the economy was possible.
"Our plan outlines an economy that supports people and the planet, instead of exploiting and exhausting both.
"That means a Green Jobs Guarantee, planting native trees instead of pine, efficient public transport, sustainable food production, restoring our wetlands, designing our cities better, distributed and resilient renewable energy, real just transition plans led by local communities, and so much more.
"He Ara Anamata not only reduces the cost of living, but increases quality of life. A better world is possible, and this is how we build it."
Proposed policies including improved regional rail connections, the re-introduction of the clean car discount, increased renewable electricity, clean heating subsidies for rooftop solar and energy efficiency, and a sinking lid cap on synthetic nitrogen fertilisers.
The plan would also remove forestry from the Emissions Trading Scheme - instead providing incentives for planting native forests, fund farmers to restore wetlands, create a Green Ministry of Works, and demand an end to fossil fuels.
Swarbrick warned fossil fuel companies to avoid expanding to New Zealand, and said the party would reinstate the oil and gas ban.
The full Green Party package would see net emissions fall 35 percent by 2030, and 47 percent by 2035, on 2020 levels, the party claimed.
Under the Paris Agreement, New Zealand committed to cutting its net emissions by 50 percent from gross 2005 levels, by 2030.
The government's draft emissions reductions plan was released in July. Calculations earlier this year indicated that so far, New Zealand's reductions are falling significantly short of what is needed to meet the 2030 commitment. And while the coalition said it would not be buying overseas carbon credits, and had not yet said how else it could meet the shortfall its own plan is expected to be released this month.
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said people, the economy and the environment can all be put first, as the party released an alternate emissions reduction plan (file photo). Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
The Green Party's emissions plan claimed it could achieve emissions reductions by concentrating on three main areas:
- Justice and equity, upholding Te Tiriti, financial redress, just transitions, encouraging strategic local partnerships
- "True environmental reform through a world-leading Emissions Trading Scheme", low-emission transport, cleaner technologies
- Sustainable land use, increasing native forests and wetlands, building sustainable infrastructure, building circular economies, and sustainable farming.
Swarbrick said it was vital to act quickly, and that their plan was a "a blueprint re-imagining our collective future".
"Grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, He Ara Anamata shows how we can achieve robust, systemic change that cuts pollution at the source, working with nature every step of the way.
"Anthropogenic climate change has been created by an unsustainable, insatiable economic system. It didn't just happen. It's not natural. In fact, it's actively destroying nature. That can and must change," she said.
"He Ara Anamata not only reduces the cost of living, but increases quality of life. A better world is possible, and this is how we build it."
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