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COP28: New Zealand supports tripling global renewable energy, Climate Minister says
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says he will provide an update on New Zealand’s stance on a global renewables pledge when he lands in Dubai at the end of the week.
Although he declined to say whether he would sign the pledge, Watts said the government backed the underlying goals of tripling the world’s renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency by 2030.
New Zealand was one of only a few OECD countries missing from a list of more than 100 signatories promising to accelerate renewable energy and energy efficiency, which was launched at the COP28 climate summit over the weekend.
Watts leaves for Dubai on Thursday and will attend the tail end of the summit from 8-12 December.
He said he understood the pledge’s targets were global in nature, leaving flexibility for individual countries to tailor their approaches.
That means New Zealand could sign up, even though National’s policy of doubling renewable energy by 2050 is substantially less than the pledge’s global goal of trebling by 2030.
“We have reviewed that specific pledge and I’ll look to be proving further updates on that when I arrive on the ground on Thursday,” Watts said.
“It is a global pledge and obviously New Zealand’s starting point is very different from many other countries.
“But it is consistent with our coalition priorities to double renewable energy by 2050.”
New Zealand has a substantially higher share of renewable electricity than most other signatories, including Australia. However, the country will need to expand supply to electrify cars, buses, trains and industrial processes that currently burn fossil fuels.
At a previous climate summit, New Zealand signed a methane pledge to reduce global methane by 30 percent by 2030, despite similarly not planning to make that level of cuts here.
Again, the pledge was to support a global aim, leaving room for different national paths – in that case, deeper cuts to fossil fuel methane and shallower cuts to agricultural methane (New Zealand’s major methane source). New Zealand’s target is cutting methane by 10 percent by 2030.
This summit, dozens of oil and gas companies promised to get methane leaks from their operations to zero by 2030.
However, the companies attracted criticism for focussing on operational emissions, when it is carbon dioxide from their products that most urgently needs to plunge to limit global heating.
Watts said his key priority at the summit would be working with other countries to push for an ambitious consensus outcome on energy. (A consensus outcome is when all 200-odd countries agree to take action, as distinct from side agreements featuring groups of countries).
He said New Zealand felt the effects of extreme events during devastating cyclone Gabrielle this year.
COP28 logo on the opening day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/AFP
The action so far
The summit got off to a strong start with the launch of a fund to start giving money to the countries hardest hit by climate change, known as the Loss and Damage Fund. Countries agreed to create a fund at the previous summit, but it took a year to get it running.
Early in this summit, New Zealand also signed up to a pledge on food and agriculture, promising to pursue lower-emissions farming and to help food production adapt to a more turbulent climate. Protecting nature was also part of the pledge.
Other elements have been more fractious.
Hosts the United Arab Emirates have attracted controversy for perceived close ties with oil interests.
COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber during the opening press conference of COP28 in Dubai, on November 30, 2023. Photo: AFP
COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber – who is also the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) – is reported by the Guardian to have told former Irish President Mary Robinson, during a live online event in November, that there is “no science” saying phasing out fossil fuel is what is going to keep the world inside 1.5C heating.
Wording around agreeing to “phase out” fossil fuel, or alternatively adopting a softer goal like “phasing down” fossil fuel, or targeting only certain categories of fossil fuel, is a key issue at the summit.
On Sunday, New Zealand was awarded the first “fossil of the day” award of the summit – a mark of dishonour given out by civil society groups. The award was in recognition of the new government’s decision to reverse the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.
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The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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