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New Zealand's emissions have fallen for the past three years. That's positive, but Rohan MacMahon, a Partner and Co-founder of the Climate Venture Capital Fund, believes we need to push harder and fully embrace electrification.
As he writes in a blog post about the Second Emissions Reduction Plan:
Beyond forestry, Aotearoa has opportunities for gross emissions reductions which we feel have been underplayed. Our renewable electricity potential is looking increasingly like a huge advantage for us. New Zealand is blessed with a mostly clean electricity grid. This makes faster electrification of fossil fuel-based energy and transport a massive opportunity for emissions reduction. Getting this right means changing electricity market settings to promote renewable builds. That should include specifically acknowledging the role that households can play in electricity generation via rooftop solar, and support the rollout of rooftop solar and batteries in communities.
To fit with that, the Government should note that increased densification of housing would directly reduce transport emissions, make public transport more economically viable and reduce the environmental and social costs of urban sprawl.
The Government’s “Electrify NZ” plan is a reasonable start to the task of mass electrification, but is not sufficiently ambitious. Remembering that we only have to decarbonise once, why not get on with the task rather than delaying it, when this is sure to lead to greater costs and higher community impact?
Demand side electrification involves supporting people to swap fossil fuel machines like gas heaters, gas cooktops and internal combustion vehicles for electric alternatives. It also involves supporting people to get rooftop solar & batteries. There’s a simple win to reduce fossil fuel use and dependence upon declining gas supplies – the Government should also simply ban gas connections in new home builds. Heat pumps & induction cooktops are zero-emissions, faster, more efficient, and safer. It is a bad decision for both climate and cost of living to lock in new family homes into paying for 20-30 years of expensive, increasing gas prices.
These initiatives can produce a more resilient energy system, significantly lowering emissions and also addressing the cost of living – a “win/ win/ win”.
As Rewiring Aotearoa notes, New Zealand is one of the first countries to reach the ‘electrification tipping point’ where households can save money while significantly reducing their emissions by electrifying their appliances and vehicles. Electrification is thus an opportunity to improve our lives in a number of different ways, at a household level.
Accordingly, it is disappointing to note that ERP2 has very little focus on households. There is little recognition of the role which residential energy customers could play in reducing emissions, lowering costs and creating a more resilient system.
Read MacMahon's full blog post here.
Rewiring Aotearoa's ERP2 submission laid out our argument for more work to be done on the plan and for household decisions to be viewed as a much larger emissions reduction opportunity.
How the sun led to higher salaries for teachers in the US and why this should be happening here, too; how "the once-rigid link between economic growth and carbon emissions is breaking across the vast majority of the world" as electrification gives more countries a productivity boost (and how that would allow New Zealand to keep embracing our long, languid summer break); solar continues to weather storms and provide 'free resilience'; Dunedin laundry company Preens goes electric and saves over 300 utes worth of emissions; the company that wants you to drink diesel exhaust; and a wonderful rundown of the Kill Bills tour - and the national electrification opportunity - from one of the tour sponsors.
Read moreDownloadAs gas supplies decline and prices rise, electrification is the best bet, but it's hard for big businesses without government support. Kirsty Johnston talks to Rainbow Nurseries about how it made the switch with help from a grant, and others who are unsure they will be able to keep getting gas. As one busines owner said: "We never considered the risk to the business of not actually having natural gas," one participant said. "We always expect that the price could fluctuate… But we never anticipated maybe having no gas coming from the pipeline." There are ways for the Government to help. And there is a huge amount of new renewable electricity coming on stream, so there won't be a shortage of electrons.
Read moreDownloadMarc Daalder reports on Vector's declining gas network and how it is responding to falling customer numbers. As he writes: "Gas in Auckland is formally past its peak in the latest forecasts from Vector, the city’s only gas distribution business, with new connections set to fall to zero in three years ... From 2029, there would be no new residential or commercial connections – with new industrial connections projected to have already ceased this year."
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