The case for energy loans: read our latest explainer
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.
"We've lost the cops!" In our next instalment of Political Power, we managed to get David Seymour, deputy prime minister and leader of the Act Party, behind the wheel of a Zeekr 7x when he was in Queenstown recently. As is often the case when people take a new EV for a spin, there was much chortling as he gave it heaps up the Remarkables ski field road - and, if we take him at his word, we might even see him give Mike Casey's tractor heaps up Parliament steps in the future.
Read moreDownloadEVs are having a moment right now, so how can we get more people driving electric; Tom Selleck sums up how EV owners are feeling right now and staggering analysis shows the sun's prices have been unaffected by decades of geopolitical conflict; Scion goes solar to get off gas, while dairy farmers and homes go with solar and batteries to keep going; Saul Griffith takes his solar-powered scooter to Canberra and starts a fight with regulators; the Cancer Society's Lions Lodge in Hamilton gets some panels donated and will save $17,000 a year; and killing the Friday vibe with new studies on how fossil fuel companies made massive profits after the last energy crisis in 2022 and carbon emissions making our blood boil - perhaps quite literally.
Read moreDownloadAn electrification advocate says the rising price and falling supply of gas may not be a bad thing in the long-term. PwC research —commissioned by Gas Industry Co— has found New Zealand's gas market will need to shrink sharply as domestic supply declines. It warns this could mean business closures, job losses, and higher energy costs.