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The Government has released a document outlining how it plans to meet our emissions targets. However, as stated by many climate scientists and media outlets, the combination of policies proposed in the ERP2 document will not keep New Zealand on track for Net Zero 2050, nor will they enable us to meet our third emissions budget. We want as many New Zealanders as possible to make a submission on the plan and share their main areas of concern and where they see the biggest missed opportunities. This guide will run you through the submisson process, outline our main arguments and even give you an email template to tailor.
The Government has released a document outlining how it plans to meet our emissions targets. However, as stated by many climate scientists and media outlets, the combination of policies proposed in the ERP2 document will not keep New Zealand on track for Net Zero 2050, nor will they enable us to meet our third emissions budget. We want as many New Zealanders as possible to make a submission on the plan and share their main areas of concern and biggest missed opportunities.
Personal stories are always most powerful, so make your own thoughts on the plan heard, but Rewiring Aotearoa has also been asked for guidance on how to submit and what those submissions could focus on. This guide will run you through the process, outline our main arguments and even give you an email template to tailor.
Rewiring Aotearoa’s main concerns are that the second emissions reduction plan is based on empirically unfounded assumptions, lacks transparency and largely ignores the role New Zealand households and businesses could play. The approach underpinning the proposed ERP2 reflects a strategy plagued by 'carbon tunnel vision,' where the single-minded pursuit of emission reductions—currently prioritised through offsetting—ignores the broader context. Effective and enduring climate action cannot be reduced to the least costly or easiest option.
Beyond reducing emissions, electrification has the potential to significantly enhance lives by improving health, well-being, and providing cheaper, cleaner, and more efficient energy. This broader perspective is essential—electrification should be seen as a comprehensive enhancement of livelihoods, not just a narrow means to cut carbon.
To date, plans for decarbonisation have primarily focused on large-scale, grid-connected renewable energy projects, like NZ Battery (Lake Onslow) and Electrify NZ, while largely overlooking smaller-scale, decentralised solutions (i.e. household electrification). These 'dinner table decisions' make up a large chunk of our domestic emissions and these emissions can be removed right now with technology that exists today and is cheaper over the long run.
This narrow focus has resulted in a fragmented system of incentives, where attention has been diverted and critical issues overlooked (e.g., the decline of gas infrastructure and gas shortages and lakes suffering from dry years exacerbated by climate change).
In contrast, empowering small-scale investments by households, farms and small businesses in technologies like solar and battery storage and electrifying the millions of small fossil fuel machines in our economy could provide a more stable, resilient and cost-effective pathway. Despite this, existing energy and industry pathways and scenarios have largely dismissed the potential benefits of decentralised solutions, assuming they will only serve as supplementary options rather than primary solutions.
However, Rewiring Aotearoa has empirically demonstrated that within 2-3 years, solar and battery systems offering a "firm and flexible" supply will be more cost-effective than relying on large corporate entities, which have vested interests in maintaining large-scale supply solutions that are susceptible to the risks mentioned above.
Focusing on the opportunity of demand side electrification and electrifying the millions of fossil fuel machines that underpin our economy is one of the only achievable ways of reaching our emissions reduction targets.
Electrification is a win-win. And we need this Government to recognise that in its ERP2 document.
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