2 days ago
Australia Could Be About To Leapfrog NZ On Climate Targets
A conservative Australian politician turned climate leader has told New Zealand ministers it is in their interests to do more on climate change.
Australian climate change authority chair Matt Kean - a former top minister for the New South Wales Liberal Party - met with Resources Minister Shane Jones and Energy and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts while he was in New Zealand to attend the Green Property Summit.
"My message to them was we want to encourage them, we want to support them and we want to share ideas about how we could lower cost of living pressure for New Zealand households and business, how we could create new jobs and opportunities for New Zealand at the same time as reducing emissions," he said.
"My message to conservatives both in Australia and abroad is when it comes to taking action on climate change, if you do it in an economically rational way there is also a political dividend to be gained."
Australia could be about to leapfrog New Zealand on the ambition of its climate targets, as it bids to win the right to host the COP31 global climate summit in 2026.
New Zealand's international climate target for 2030 - cutting emissions by 50 percent - is currently ahead of Australia's 43 per cent target, with both countries using 2005 as a base year.
But New Zealand has adopted a target for 2035 of cutting planet-heating gases by 51-55 percent, only slightly above its 2030 target, while the Australian climate change authority has consulted on a target of between 65 and 75 per cent.
Kean described New Zealand's ambition as "largely static".
He could not divulge where Australia would land on its 2035 target but he said beating New Zealand - and then some - should be achievable and good for Australia.
"Obviously Australia wants to do its bit to meet this challenge, but we also think it's in our economic interests to grab the capital that is available internationally to build the industries and opportunities that Australia wants to realise for the future," Kean said.
"Our national interests as a country on the front line of the impacts climate change are to be part of a global effort to reduce emissions, but it's also in our national interests to build industries, attract investments and create jobs as a result of this global economic transition."
He said the same applied to New Zealand, and he hoped to see more competition between the countries on climate action.
"There's always been a healthy and friendly rivalry between our two countries on the sporting field and hopefully that expands to meeting climate challenges."
'Good meeting'
Kean said he was grateful for the chance to meet Jones and other government ministers and MPs.
He was supportive of a proposal for government subsidies for New Zealand homeowners to replace their gas and inefficient heaters with heat pumps, which the Green Building Council said would save the country $1.5 billion a year.
Australia had its own challenges with gas availability, but unlike New Zealand it had subsidies for alternatives such as residential solar panels, electric storage batteries and hot water heat pumps.
Building Council chief executive Andrew Eagles told Morning Report that although New Zealand households were making progress in the adoption of heat pumps and decreasing purchases of gas hot water systems, commercial and residential natural gas/LPG consumption was still climbing - leaving some gas-reliant businesses facing closure.
"It's a huge talking point in Australia as well, we've got more gas than pretty much anywhere else on Earth but because it's all contracted offshore there's a shortage of gas for Australian businesses and families and that's putting enormous pressure on household bills," said Kean.
"We were trying to share some of our learnings from our time in government and how we addressed it and also to hear where the New Zealand government was coming from as well."
He said governments had a role to play in the energy market.
"In Australia, my preference was always for less government intervention but we had to look at what government not being involved could look like, and certainly in the energy transition the private sector wouldn't always take on the risk that was required," he said.
"The government putting the policies in place that facilitated the private sector meant savings for business, savings for households and a better outcome."
RNZ has approached Jones' office for comment.
Australia has overtaken New Zealand for EV sales on the back of more supportive government policy and has long been ahead on rooftop solar with almost a third of households having solar panels.
However its electricity sector as a whole still burns much more coal and gas than New Zealand's.
Export challenge
Australia's international climate targets do not cover its fossil fuel exports, because the coal and gas it produces for export are burned elsewhere.
That's in contrast to New Zealand's export dairy sector, which produces most of its emissions inside New Zealand. (However international flights for tourism are excluded from New Zealand's targets).
As one of the world's biggest coal and gas exporters, Australia's fossil fuel exports produce around three times as much climate-heating gases as activities within Australia, according to one study.
A landmark opinion from the International Court of Justice has declared major fossil fuel producers could be liable for reparations to countries damaged by climate change.
Kean said Australia needed to be ready to replace its fossil fuel exports.
"The reality is the fossil fuels we are exporting are not going to be at the same level of demand as is currently the case, so we need to prepare for this transition and start to build other exports that can continue to grow Australia's GDP," he said.
He said Australia had "periodic table" of elements in its ground to draw on.
"We recognise that China, Korea, Japan, some of our big takers of Australia's fossil fuel, are changing the things they want to use to power their economies and the reality is we're really well placed to meet their new needs, because of our abundant renewable energy resources."
Kean said his message of saving money and energy while cutting emissions received a good reception from Jones, a minister who has previously described climate concern as "hysteria".
Kean was a member of the conservative Liberal Party and former New South Wales Treasurer and Energy minister before chairing the climate change authority.
He said his message to conservatives in Australia and New Zealand was that there were political dividends to be gained from progressive action on climate change.
"In the state of New South Wales where I hail from, the forward-thinking climate policies that the conservative government put in place have now been adopted by the progressive government, so the policies are surviving political cycles, and what we have been seeing at a national level is the party that advocated for stronger action on climate change get a huge and thumping majority, whereas the conservative party that looked to backslide when it came to climate action lost a whole lot of seats in their traditional heartland to climate friendly independents."
The climate authority's final recommendation on Australia's 2035 target is due to be provided to Australian Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen within the next month.
