Assessing the impacts of Motu’s Low-Emission Future Programme

by Catherine Leining, Ceridwyn Roberts, and Suzi Kerr of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust.

In November 2016, Motu surveyed 360 people interested in climate change policy and had 81 responses. The survey was designed to help assess the impacts of Motu’s programme ‘Shaping New Zealand’s Low-Emission Future’ and its cross-stakeholder Emissions Trading Scheme and Low-Emission Future Dialogues as well as inform future programme planning. As a ‘thank you’ to all those who took part Motu will purchase and plant six trees through the Wellington City Council’s ‘Two Million Trees’ initiative.

We feel encouraged that more than three quarters of respondents agree or strongly agree that Motu’s work has enhanced the quality of policy discussion on climate change mitigation and that more than four fifths of respondents regard Motu as a credible source of independent expert information on climate change mitigation.

New emissions reduction plan business as usual

By Ralph Sims. Reprinted with permission from Carbon News

The Government’s plan to cut the emissions intensity from industrial heat generation  by 1 per cent a year is just business as usual, and will do little to achieve New Zealand’s Paris Agreement commitment.

Ralph Sims is Professor of Massey University’s School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, an IPCC lead author and consultant to the International Energy Agency. He is an expert on renewable energy deployment and policies, distributed energy (including smart grids), biomass supply chains and bioenergy conversion, biofuels for transport andclimate change and renewable energy scenarios.

There is a major disconnect between New Zealand’s international commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement and the recently released draft for consultation of the NZ Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy for 2017 to 2022.