Government will have to buy electric cars and build green buildings as it declares climate change emergency
As it declares a climate change emergency, the Government has promised to clean up its own house with all Government buildings going green and new cars going electric by 2025. This promise is not backed by any new funding however, and huge swathes of Government buildings such as state houses are only included in principle. The climate change emergency declaration was made by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and joins New Zealand to 32 other countries who have declared a climate change emergency. The motion includes a promise to make the public sector carbon-neutral by 2025. It was supported by Labour, the Green Party, and the Maori Party, and opposed by National and ACT which both derided it as an empty gesture. The public sector needs to be and will be an exemplar that sets the standard we all need to achieve by 2050, Ardern said. All Government departments and ministries will be required to measure their emissions and offset the ones they cannot remove by 2025. Government buildings larger than 2000 square metres will need to meet a new energy efficiency standard by 2025, while new builds and leases will need to meet green building standards. Agencies will be required to optimise their car fleet, with a reduction of vehicles and electric vehicles being preferred for new vehicles, or hybrids where electric vehicles are not appropriate. READ MORE: * Government to declare climate change emergency in Parliament next week * What would a new climate change minister mean for climate action? * Climate plea: Students vow to fight councils refusal to declare emergency * Zero Carbon Bill passes with near-unanimous support, setting climate change targets into law There is some money to help with decarbonisation the already-announced $200m public sector decarbonisation fund. There was a push for a climate change emergency declaration during the last term, but this was stymied by NZ First. The motion itself will have no practical effect on laws or the running of the country, but instead symbolically signals that the Government saw climate change as an emergency. National MP Stuart Smith said National would not support the declaration as it was virtue signalling and not effective. ACTs Simon Court also spoke against the motion. Emissions are projected to increase in coming years, but did drop by 1 per cent in the first year of the Labour-led Government in 2018. Climate Change Minister James Shaw passed the Zero Carbon Bill during the last term, an overarching new system for setting emissions reductions targets that created an independent Climate Change Commission, which would itself recommend carbon budgets for governments to reach those targets. He failed to get agriculture, one of New Zealands largest emitters, into the Emissions Trading Scheme, although the sector will enter the scheme by default in 2025 if another system for pricing the cost of emissions is not created. Shaw also failed to seriously shift the dial on transport emissions, as NZ First stopped the proposed feebate scheme and vehicle emission standard. The declaration happened not long after Question Time on Wednesday afternoon. When a declaration was first mooted last term, Ardern said she supported one, but didnt place huge weight on its importance. I dont see why there should be any reason why members of Parliament wouldnt want to demonstrate that this is a matter of urgency, Ardern said. The one thing I think we need to make really clear, though, [is that] a declaration in Parliament doesnt change our direction of travel. Its what we invest in and its the laws that we pass that make the big difference, and on those grounds I think we are making good, solid progress. ACT leader David Seymour said declaring an emergency would be a marketing stunt. This is a marketing stunt that wont stop one tonne of emissions. If youve got a policy, you dont need to declare an emergency. If you have to declare an emergency, maybe your policy isnt working, Seymour said.