Submissions
Submission In Response To: Accelerating Renewable Energy And Energy Efficiency
Accelerating the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency are both very important steps that need to be taken, and we agree with many of the suggestions in the Discussion Document. However, given the extreme climate emergency we are currently now facing, with the strong possibility of catastrophic outcomes if it is not adequately addressed, these steps on their own are not nearly enough for New Zealand to contribute sufficiently towards holding global heating below the current internationally agreed limit of 1.5°C.
Read MoreSubmission In Response To: Reforming The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme: Proposed Settings
It has now become very clear that we are facing an extreme crisis and potential catastrophe from global heating, primarily caused by emissions of CO2 from our burning of fossil fuels. Addressing this requires really urgent and effective action.
Read MoreSubmission In Response To: Process Heat In New Zealand: Opportunities And Barriers To Lowering Emissions Technical Paper January 2019
One of the aims of the 2015 Paris Agreement is: “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.” New Zealand ratified this agreement and therefore needs to play its part in achieving the agreement’s aims.
Read MoreSubmission On The Zero Carbon Bill
The Zero Carbon Bill is a critically important piece of legislation for New Zealand. Even though the importance of controlling global warming has become increasingly clear and more widely understood over the past 30 years, to date we have not set meaningful targets to significantly reduce emissions and we have not had any mechanisms in place that seem to have had any significant effect on driving reductions in emissions. Hence our net emissions have just continued to increase through most of this period.
Read MoreClimate Change And The Long Term Plan
In the wake of recent coastal storm damage, it is surely now clear that councils need to take account of climate change in their planning, especially as it relates to sea-level rise and the frequency of severe storms. A recently-published study* shows that the pace of sea-level rise is increasing.
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