Foreign Affairs
If National is seen as taking New Zealand two steps backwards for every step in the right direction, it will face increasing pressure at diplomatic summits, Marc Daalder reports from Rarotonga
Analysis: A diplomatic liability for the incoming National-led government has already reared its head before any ministers have even been sworn in.
On Wednesday at the Pacific Islands Forum, Vanuatu’s Climate Change Minister, Ralph Regevanu, called on National not to reinstate offshore oil and gas exploration in New Zealand.
“We call on them not to do it. To be in line with Paris, the 1.5 degree target, the science says you cannot do new fossil fuels.”
READ MORE:
* Vanuatu urges National not to restart offshore oil and gas
* Shadow of COP28 climate summit looms over Pacific Islands Forum
The transfer caught Nationwide off guard, with international affairs spokesperson Gerry Brownlee having instructed reporters simply hours beforehand he did not anticipate Pacific leaders to touch upon the oil and fuel coverage.
“Properly, I do not assume any of them would touch upon New Zealand’s home coverage as we do not touch upon theirs,” he stated.
The following day, Brownlee stated he hadn’t underestimated the significance of this topic to the Pacific, earlier than arguing that Pacific nations depend on fossil gasoline extraction elsewhere, resembling New Zealand.
“The Pacific could be a fairly unliveable place in trendy phrases if it weren’t for fossil gasoline. And they’re all solely depending on different nations extracting that gasoline and supplying it to them. It is actually essential to concentrate on the long-term purpose, which is the 2050 targets and Paris and to maintain your dedication as much as these.”
Nationwide’s issues will solely be compounded within the coming weeks with the COP28 local weather summit. Although high-ambition nations, together with New Zealand, have spent the previous 12 months pushing onerous for a concrete dedication to a world phase-out of fossil gasoline utilization, the brand new authorities’s first main motion on this space will probably be to backtrack on oil and fuel exploration.
Even worse, the nation might get kicked out of a coalition of high-ambition nations – the Past Oil and Fuel Alliance – which requires members to have taken steps to finish fossil gasoline extraction. New Zealand was among the many first affiliate members of the alliance when it was created in 2021 and it will be awkward, to say the least, if it had been expelled throughout the local weather summit.
In September, the Worldwide Vitality Company reiterated that there may be no improvement of latest oil and fuel fields if the world needs to restrict warming to 1.5C. In March, the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change reported that even half of identified fuel reserves and 30 p.c of identified oil reserves should keep within the floor for a shot at retaining warming to 2C.
New Zealand was hailed by local weather advocates in 2018 when it made the choice to bar additional offshore oil and fuel exploration. That helped reignite its repute for being a local weather chief. Buying and selling on this and different actions such because the creation of the Emissions Discount Plan and Zero Carbon Act, New Zealand has launched a new climate diplomatic strategy of being a loud and dogged voice for emissions reductions globally.
That affect will wane as Nationwide begins implementing its personal local weather plans, which is able to largely seem like a step backwards, not less than at first.
Although it has a coverage to make it simpler to consent renewable electrical energy, Nationwide has additionally pledged to can a raft of Labour-era measures. Alongside the offshore exploration ban, it has promised to eliminate the Clear Automobile Low cost, delay agricultural emissions pricing by as much as 5 years, finish subsidies to assist the private and non-private sectors decarbonise, and drain the Local weather Emergency Response Fund to pay for tax cuts.
The poor reception for Nationwide’s local weather plans in Rarotonga is partially to be anticipated, given the significance of local weather change to the Pacific. However it is going to be replicated in different boards and with different nations as nicely.
Germany’s local weather change envoy Jennifer Morgan was extra circumspect when she spoke to Newsroom concerning the incoming authorities’s local weather insurance policies, however she did say there wasn’t an financial or local weather case for investing in new fossil gasoline extraction.
Renewables are “a pathway that I feel might actually meet the financial and local weather wants of New Zealanders and keep away from the danger of stranded property, which clearly I am positive any authorities needs to be doing that”.
Total, New Zealand wanted to be doing greater than it is, not much less, she stated.
“It is actually clear at this second in time that every one nations, together with Germany, together with New Zealand, simply should step it up. We now have no time for going backwards, we have now to go forwards, we have now to extend the tempo and scale of change. We’re very a lot trying ahead to studying what the brand new New Zealand authorities will probably be placing ahead, retaining that in thoughts.”
If Nationwide is seen as taking New Zealand two steps backwards for each step in the precise course, it is going to face rising stress at diplomatic summits, together with from conventional high-ambition companions resembling Germany.
It is one factor to greenwash your plans and insurance policies to the citizens, who do not have the coverage nous to know what’s going to work and what’s simply advantage signalling, but it surely’s one other factor to attempt to persuade the world you need to lead on local weather whereas restoring the power for firms to mine for oil and fuel 5 years after it was first eliminated to broad acclaim.
