This article was first published in The Spinoff's Covering Climate Now series on 16 September 2019.
Since 1992, multiple rounds of greenhouse gas emission targets have failed to reduce absolute emissions globally or in Aotearoa in line with preventing dangerous climate change. One definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting different results. Whether it is insanity or courage, we are trying again.
New Zealand’s economy is emissions intensive and vulnerable to climate change impacts. When it is so clear that we have a serious problem, why are emission targets so hard? Here are a few reasons:
- They impose near-term costs on us while the benefits will accrue globally and across generations.
- They create win/lose competition for economic growth rights within a shrinking cap on emissions.
- They are interdependent with other environmental, economic and social targets.
- They are hard to allocate equitably across sectors and translate into practical actions.
- They raise risks our production and emissions will be displaced offshore.
- They incentivise manipulative behaviour, as we saw with buying low-quality offshore emission units in the first Kyoto commitment period.
