{"id":4649,"date":"2023-05-19T04:56:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T16:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=4649"},"modified":"2023-05-19T04:56:24","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T16:56:24","slug":"budget-2023-climate-and-science-sectors-react-to-wins-and-losses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=4649","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2023: Climate and science sectors react to wins and losses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prominent environmental groups are less than impressed with what they describe as underwhelming budget investments in climate, but an expert says the government has taken a multifaceted approach.<\/p>\n

Among the announcements on Thursday was $402.6 million to expand the duration and scope of the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, $120m to expand EV charging infrastructure, $100m fund to help councils invest in future flood resilience, $24.7m to improve data on impacts of climate change and adaptation and mitigation, and $167.4m in building resilience to future climate events.<\/p>\n

(Read more about the\u00a0full climate and science, research and technology investments here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

It comes on the same day the World Meteorological Organisation said\u00a0global temperatures were now more likely than not to breach 1.5 degrees Celsius<\/a>\u00a0of warming within the next five years.<\/p>\n

Forest and Bird said the budget did little to tackle climate change and turn around biodiversity loss.<\/p>\n

“Keeping New Zealanders safe is clearly a ‘bread and butter’ issue, yet the government’s lack of investment in nature-based solutions is putting us all at risk,” chief executive Nicola Toki said.<\/p>\n

\"Nicola<\/p>\n

Nicola Toki\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0Supplied\/Paul Donovan<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“What we looked for but have not found, is meaningful investment in nature-based solutions to climate impacts, and our biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture, has not yet been priced more than 30 years after New Zealand promised the world it would cut emissions.”<\/p>\n

The government’s $6 billion infrastructure-focused National Resilience Plan needed to prioritise investment in areas like river catchments, forests, and wetlands – otherwise it might even affect people’s ability to get insurance in the future, Toki said.<\/p>\n

Electricity Networks Aotearoa chief executive Richard Le Gros said the association, which represents New Zealand’s 27 electricity distribution businesses (EDBs), supported the focus in the budget on decarbonisation initiatives as well as insulation and heating retrofits.<\/p>\n

“We welcome the government’s greater investment in public EV charging infrastructure throughout the country,” Le Gros said, adding it would help reduce household energy bills and encourage a green transition.<\/p>\n

RNZ SOURCE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prominent environmental groups are less than impressed with what they describe as underwhelming budget investments in climate, but an expert says the government has taken a multifaceted approach. Among the announcements on Thursday was $402.6 million to expand the duration and scope of the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, $120m to expand EV charging infrastructure, $100m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4651,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649\/revisions\/4651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}