Posts by Dr Geoff Bertram
Upcoming event: A perspective on New Zealand’s climate change policies
The policy problem of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is not simple. For most people the official numbers are confusing and the policy architecture is obscure. Speaker Geoff Bertram will try to get both of those into perspective and to shine a spotlight on Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement, focusing in particular on the accounting procedures that New Zealand has used to over-state its performance since 1990.
Read MoreWhat Is Wrong With The New Zealand Electricity Market?
Dr Geoff Bertram spoke to an online meeting of Engineers for Social Responsibility on 19 August 2020. He reviewed the electricity reforms since 1986 and their effects, particularly on pricing, excess profits and anti-competitive practices. He noted the effects particularly on increasing poverty and inequality, specially child poverty and energy poverty. He suggested steps that could be taken to deal with these problems, but noted that invested interests would make implementation of any of them, very difficult to achieve.
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