let’s bulldoze this bill into oblivion

Minister Chris Bishop has already said he would listen to the wave of opposition to the Bill, which appears to be coming from all sides, even from independent government watchdogs like the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and the Auditor General, both concerned at the extreme power the bill could give to Ministers.

Tim Jones and Tom Powell presented our submission to the Select Committee last Friday (here’s a copy of it – have a read), repeating the issues we are most concerned with: it’s anti democratic, it undermines and ignores Te Tiriti, and would let things like the Te Kuha coal mine get past the consent stage, despite already having been turned down by the likes of the Environment Court.

And on Friday the Ombudsman also weighed in, stating the unchecked ministerial powers could put the country on a “a slippery slope”.

“On the one hand, I can see why speed achieves what’s wanted with a beefing up of executive power, but unless that’s matched by oversight and accountability, then I think democracy itself is the loser.”

Meanwhile, without even having final legislation passed, the government invited companies wanting to be listed in the bill to apply. That deadline was last week. As Dame Anne Salmond pointed out:

“They are behaving as if the select committee process has already been decided, and public concerns about this draft legislation have been dismissed in advance.  That is an insult to tens of thousands of New Zealanders who are writing submissions opposing this bill, and to the select committee process as well.”

So we need to keep up the pressure. Sign up here to join the March for Nature in Tāmaki Makaurau, 1pm on June 8

CAFT
Meanwhile, we’ve been working behind the scenes with a new group called Communities Against the Fast Track, a fantastic group of like-minded organisations.

Check out the latest activity:
We’re challenging the government’s Select Committee process
Providing a guide for the lucky few who are chosen to make an oral submission
Keep an eye on the CAFT website for updates, get on their mailing list and find ways to continue this fight

The post Keeping the pressure up against the fast-track bill: join us on June 8 in the March for Nature appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA), the national organisation campaigning for an end to coal mining and coal use, says Resources Minister Shane Jones needs to understand the world has moved on from the industrial revolution, and coal – and siding with the dinosaurs won’t do his grandchildren any favours.

“While Fonterra’s getting out of coal as fast as possible because its international customers are demanding it, Caveman Shane wants to take us back to the dark ages,” said CANA spokesperson Jenny Campbell.

Te Kuha mine, turned down by the Environment Court but said to be a top pick for the government’s fast-track process. Photo: Neil Silverwood

“Relaxing rules for new coal mines in the face of increasing climate impacts is unlikely  to be something New Zealanders will throw their weight behind. People across the country are still recovering from flood disasters: some from more than a year ago, and some just last week; farmers are suffering from a crippling drought and crying out for rain.

“This Minister, who doesn’t care about killing kiwi and never met a mine he didn’t like, clearly got his riding instructions in his four-hour meeting with mining lobbyists in January. The world has moved on from the 1800’s, here’s a climate crisis to tackle, and he needs to catch up.

“Between this and the fast-track Bill, this Government is showing it’s fast becoming an environmental vandal and climate criminal.”

“The International Energy Agency has been very clear: we don’t need any new coal mines.  And there is no such thing as good coal – whether it comes from Rotowaro or Indonesia, this stuff is a climate killer – and it also kills kids and vulnerable older people through its pollutants.”

CANA questioned who the Minister thought were the customers for all these new coal mines he wants to open.

“Is the Government planning to reverse the planned phaseout of low and medium heat coal boilers by 2037? That would further ruin the environmental reputation of New Zealand businesses in our key overseas markets,” she asked?

“Shane Jones may only care about doing the bidding of the lobbyists and donors whose interests he serves,” concluded Jenny Campbell

“But our children and our country deserve better. They deserve better than a Minister who specialises in aggressive ignorance. They deserve better than a Government that is selling our country off to the miners, the drillers and the despoilers. They deserve better than Shane Jones, and they deserve better than a climate change-fuelled future tied to fossil fuels and failure.”

The post Shane Jones throws a lump of coal to the mining lobbyists appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

By Tim Jones

What’s the Government planning to do?

The recently introduced Fast-track Approval Bill is a massive power grab by the new Government. Under it, three Ministers will have the power to arbitrarily decide that projects, including coal mines on conservation land, can go ahead without any public input. Radio New Zealand has produced a great explainer about the Bill which is vital reading – please do read it!

It gets worse. The Bill gives the Government the power to resurrect projects that have already been rejected by the courts – including the proposed Te Kuha coal mine on the West Coast, which Forest & Bird and CANA have worked together to oppose.

Fast track protest in Karangahake gorge, Coromandel, March 2024.
Photo: R Rockell

As the Radio New Zealand explainer says:

This Bill has already provoked protests in Hauraki and Taranaki.

There will be more.

No Fast Track No Seabed Mining protest outside EPA hearings in Hāwera, 13 March. Photo: Matt Coffey

Next,  please write to your nearest MP – especially if they’re an MP from one of the governing parties. Tell them what you, personally, dislike about this Bill, and the consequences the Government is likely to face from pushing this Bill and its hidden list of projects through. Be polite, but leave them in no doubt about what you think and feel.

The coal companies are gloating over this Bill.

But they’ve gloated before, and we’ve left them with egg on their faces. Let’s do it again.

The post Shane Jones, Chris Bishop, and Simeon Brown want the power to authorise mines and motorways on behalf of their mates with the click of a pen. Here’s how to fight back. appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

While climate change is relatively high in peoples’ minds (depending on where you live), other issues like the economy continue to dominate the headlines. Yet climate change affects everything, from the price of vegetables to our insurance bills, our health, our housing, and indeed our economy.

Even so, as the election campaign kicked off  we saw  National Party Leader Chris Luxon lift $600 million a year  from the climate fund to pay for his tax cuts and Labour leader Chris Hipkins cut another $200m of climate policies without even informing the Minister.

Voting has started!

Voting has opened.  You can find a list of polling booths here.

So now that you CAN vote, you have to make the decision as to WHO to vote for.  There’s been a few websites where you can look at policy and see how you might want to cast your vote. But the main ones, in our view, don’t cover climate in enough detail, nor the other important and related issues.

Here’s our recommendations: 

• Elections Scorecards has been put together by a great team of organisations who’ve rated party policies along the issues of Te Tiriti, Tax & Profits, Fairness, Justice, Climate, workers and housing.
• VoteForClimate by the Climate Club – this also has a range of activities you can take part in to help get out the vote
• Climate Shift by Greenpeace, Oxfam and Forest & Bird as a 10-point plan for climate action which you should take not of and take to candidate meetings to ask pertinent questions.

We know climate is at least in the top five of peoples concerns, but the main objective is to get Climate Change to the top of people’s minds when they vote.

Triple the vote

This year it’s so important for everyone to vote. It’s easy. You just need to go along to a voting booth, and they’ll take you through the process. You don’t have to register before going, or even wait for your voting card.  Just rock up and vote. 

On top of that, do you have people in your life who may not vote? Can you convince them to come with you?  If all of us got three people out to vote who weren’t going to, we can triple the vote.  These people might not be in the country, but they can still vote (if they’ve visited Aotearoa in recent years). It’s never been easier – they can register, and do it all online.  Send them the link. 

Meanwhile…

Scientists have been holding an emergency summit about the terrible state of Antarctic sea ice. NIWA marine physicist Dr Natalie Robinson says that in the 44 years of monitoring the ocean, they’ve never seen anything like it

The International Energy Agency last week published its latest Net Zero Emissions (NZE) scenario, which sets out the pathways to get to net zero, globally. It’s ALL possible, it says, but we need coal and gas out of our energy systems by, latest, 2035.  Shame Fonterra wants to continue burning coal all the way through to 2037.  Getting methane out of the system is also crucial.

There’s been some good (and some not-so-good) articles about the election, but we’ll end this blog by quoting this great article by Simon Wilson on why farmers should be voting Green : 

Why wouldn’t they? They are kaitiaki, or guardians of the land. They manage a big range of environmental impacts every day.

They’re far more likely than most of us to be affected by floods, droughts and the devastation caused by slash and other poor land management. They are in the forefront of the fight against new diseases in the ecosystem and every threat from insect, plant and animal pests.

They know what’s at stake because they live in the midst of it.

The post Vote like your life depends on it … and triple your vote appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today heralded the Government’s decision to help New ZealandSteel cut its coal use by 45% as a huge step in decarbonising the economy and ending coal use in New Zealand.

“This is fantastic news, and the kind of step we need our government to be taking: it’s great news for the climate,” said Tim Jones of CANA.

“The Glenbrook Steel mill burns around 800,000 tonnes of coal each year, so cutting that by 45% is massive. Now we need to see the rest of the mill decarbonise.”

NZ Steel burns 800,000 tonnes of coal a year (Photo: wikicommons) 

CANA has long advocated for NZ Steel to start recycling scrap steel, but the company had previously argued it wasn’t ready to do this. 

“In the face of a decarbonising world, we’re seeing technologies like electric arc furnaces become mainstream, and getting this up and running in Aotearoa is a no brainer,” he said.

“New Zealand Steel has received more free allocations of emission reduction units under the Emissions Trading Scheme than any other industry, to the tune of millions. This is a far better use of taxpayers money than throwing big overseas-owned industries like NZ Steel money to pollute,” he said.

However, he noted that given the government’s statement today that the abatement cost for NZ Steel would be $16.50 a tonne, compared with the carbon price of $55 a tonne, then why not stop giving big emitters free allocation? 

“This announcement shows how absurd and damaging it is that we continue to pay big industries to pollute by giving them free allocations of carbon credits. If we ended those free allocations, more industries would be incentivised to decarbonise and the taxpayer wouldn’t have to subsidise them to do it.”

The post Government decision to convert steel mill to burn less coal a fantastic move appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

The night Cyclone Gabrielle hit my coastal village of Piha was, frankly, terrifying, as it was for so many around the motu.  I measured more than 400mm in my back yard – my neighbours up the road had 457mm. That’s nearly half a metre of rain. In just 12 hours.

The house on a Piha hill that broke in half in a slip

High above us on the hill, a neighbour’s house broke in half: the elderly occupants got out with literally 30 seconds to spare.  The family living directly under them down the hill quickly evacuated to mine at 12.45 am, all soaking wet from the deluge of water pouring off the hill and down our road.

Friends in North Piha had a slip come right through their house: red stickered. They don’t know what they’re going to do. This was their retirement, their dream, and it’s just been shattered.  Another whole road has slumped and the whole street is cut off,  as is the road at the top of the hill that provides access to the school that most of our primary school aged kids go to. The pre-school got flooded so isn’t operational.

The beginning of my little dead end road was completely flooded, submerging two houses. One family got out, leaving two dogs behind; the other didn’t, and spent the night in their house surrounded by water.  The new pond was finally pumped out on Sunday night, so finally we didn’t have to walk up the road and go down a goat track to get out – or to get things like generators in. [The dogs are both fine and reunited with their people].

This area had been submerged underwater up to the first floor of this Piha house

We had no power in our street for 11 days (don’t start me on Vector who didn’t even have our outage logged and was telling people who’d been out of power for nine days that their power was on).  It wasn’t easy.  But my house is fine. And we’re all alive. As are all our neighbours over in Karekare, many of whom are still cut off from the world.

A Coal Action Network colleague was one of those choppered out in the days after Gabrielle, as he lives well below all the slips. His house is fine but whether he’ll ever be able to drive there again is still in question. 

Our hearts go out to the communities in Muriwai and further south in Hawkes Bay and Tairawhiti. 

But trauma is exhausting, and real. I found myself close to tears at the smallest things, like not being able to start the generator in the morning.

What’s also lurking behind my tears is the fact that I’ve been working to stop climate change for 30 years and the same old arguments keep coming up: that it’s too expensive to act on. 

For years we’ve been pushing the government to do the work to understand the costs of climate impacts, to weigh them up against the costs of action, of cutting emissions and moving to a low-carbon economy.  Because if the only numbers you have are the costs of action, it bolsters all those who object to taking the strong action we need.  The Climate Change Commission didn’t have the numbers either. The work on the cost of climate impacts just hasn’t been done.  Perhaps we should start with the bill from Gabrielle.

And now we’re hearing a new kind of climate denial – most ridiculous claims from people like Chris Trotter, and Matthew Hooton, arguing that it’s now too late to act on climate change, now we just have to get on with adapting to it. Act’s Brooke Van Velden joined the fray on TVNZ Breakfast.

Hooton has spent decades trying to (incorrectly) spin New Zealand’s lack of real climate action in favour of planting pine trees as somehow being world-leading. It isn’t and has never been the case.  

The question they haven’t looked at is how much you can adapt to: and when it simply becomes what the UNFCCC views as “loss and damage.” Loss of land, of people, of coastlines, and community. This has been the developing world’s big fight: given the developed world’s lack of action on climate change, those governments need to start paying for the resulting damage, damage that cannot be recovered from. But those Loss & Damage funds would not be available for Aotearoa: we’re part of the problem. 

We’re currently experiencing around 1.2˚C of warming above pre-industrial levels, when we started burning coal and other fossil fuels. Under current policy pathways, the policies governments have in place right now, the world is still heading to more than twice that: 2.7˚C of warming – or more. If governments manage to meet their Paris Agreement pledges, it’s still 2.4˚C. 

The reality of where we’re headed in terms of warming www.climateactiontracker.org

But if this is what we get at 1.2˚C what kind of fresh hell will 2.7˚C bring? 

It’s mind blowing. Cyclone Gabrielle has now been officially confirmed by NIWA as being the strongest cyclone to ever hit Aotearoa. Worse than Bola (1988) and worse than Giselle (1968). The lowest pressure, and the most rain – of course there was a lot more moisture in the air with Gabrielle, thanks to global warming, and Gabrielle picked up intensity as she crossed an ocean undergoing a marine heatwave – also from global warming.

And no, it wasn’t the Tongan eruption. While yes, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption did send unprecedented vapour into the stratosphere, scientists have calculated it may lead to around 0.1˚C of warming. The rest of the warming is down to us.

If Trotter, Hooton and Act honestly think we can safely adapt to that, they need their heads read. It’s extraordinary the lengths people will go to cling onto their lifestyles and oppose all emissions cuts. 

But we still have choices.

We don’t have to get to 2.7 degrees. We need to spend cash both on adaptation AND mitigation. Because the bill for adapting to 2.7˚C would be ridiculous. A low-carbon society IS possible, and as scientists repeatedly tell us, will actually be good for our economy.  It’s not an either or situation. It’s both. 

It’s going to be hard to get to the recommended, and agreed, warming limit of 1.5˚C. It’s going to cost a lot. But let’s be clear, the costs of adapting to a two or even three degree world will be astronomical. 

Lucy, a friend who has worked on climate change for 20 years, put this next bit so succinctly, I’ve asked her if I can use it in this blog. 

From Lucy

“When I was first working on climate change 20 years ago, the most common belief was it didn’t exist and hysterical environmentalists were over stating the risk.

Then 10 years ago, we acknowledged it did exist but NZ was too small and we couldn’t make a real difference to global emissions and it was hard so we should give up trying – be fast followers.

Then we segued into accepting it was a problem and that if all the small countries like us gave up then, actually, that would be a third of global emissions and so maybe we should do our fair share. Climate change was just one of many other issues that all had higher priority and we needed to balance with economic growth and keep the farmers happy etc.

We also had a fun argument about whether we should invest in community engagement/education and behaviour change OR systemic changes to taxes, infrastructure, economic levers, legislation etc.

We roundly discounted education without considering that a) maybe we need to do both as fast as we can and b) that maybe getting some public understanding of climate change and buy-in to the solutions is an essential prerequisite to making major systemic change.

Bill English on a tractor protesting Labour’s 2003 “fart tax” (c) Scoop media

Instead we just introduced some policies, fart taxes, cycleways, parking strategies etc, got a shock when the public didn’t like them and quickly repealed them.

We didn’t have the support for systemic change but we said ‘we can’t try and educate people about climate change because nanny state, shower gate’, we can tell people not to speed, but we can’t possibly waste money on telling them how we can prevent the single biggest threat to humanity and te taiao.

And now people are drowning in Hawkes Bay and we have segued perfectly to ‘It’s too late, adaptation is the priority, we just have to invest in our physical assets’.

But the tragedy is the climate doesn’t care about the stories we tell and 2.7 degrees of warming will far FAR exceed any physical adaptation we can build.”

The post The new climate denial: adaptation over mitigation appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

PRESS RELEASE

“We’re disappointed and frustrated at the lack of urgency in the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan discussion document,” said Tim Jones of Coal Action Network Aotearoa, the national group campaigning for an end to coal mining and use in Aotearoa.

“In fact, this isn’t even a plan – it’s a grab-bag of generally underwhelming proposals submitted by Ministers and Ministries. None reflect the urgency of the climate crisis, especially given the government has declared a Climate Emergency.”

“Agriculture, which represents almost 50% of New Zealand’s emissions, is dealt with in just four pages – that tells you all you need to know about the Government’s lack of climate ambition, and the Minister of Agriculture’s refusal to cooperate with the Government’s emissions reduction goals.”

“Coal is the highest-emitting fossil fuel, yet this draft document would let coal mining and burning continue for decades,” Tim Jones said.

“The Government is still giving big industrial emitters massive subsidies, in the form of free industrial allocations of carbon credits under the Emissions Trading Scheme, paid for by taxpayers, to keep burning coal and other fossil fuels: there’s no commitment to phase out those subsidies.

“The Government is also continuing to let Fonterra set the timetable for phasing out industrial coal boilers, instead of telling Fonterra to shape up. Letting big emitters continue to burn coal as long as they want isn’t a plan – it’s a failure of policy and a failure of nerve.”

“Aotearoa needs and deserves vision and leadership on climate action and climate justice,” Tim Jones said. “We need a real plan of action, with a strategy, milestones, and measurable deliverables.”

“The Prime Minister has spoken frequently about her commitment to strong action on climate change. This draft document shows that all too many of her Ministers don’t share that commitment.

It’s up to the community to step into the breach during the submission period and make it impossible for the Government to ignore the clamour for real, meaningful, measurable emissions reductions – and it’s up to the Prime Minister to get her Ministers on board and in line.

Let’s turn this into a real plan to reduce emissions and respond to the climate emergency.”

The post Coal Action Network On Government Emissions Reduction Plan: Where’s The Plan? appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Coal Action Network Aotearoa sharply criticised the Climate Change Commission’s decision to double projected coal use in 2050 in its final advice to the Government, released today.

“The Climate Change Commission’s final advice to the Government is full of brave words about the need to phase out coal,” said Coal Action Network Aotearoa spokesperson Tim Jones. “But brave words mean nothing without the determination to act – and since its draft report, it looks like the Commission’s nerve has failed.”

“In the draft advice, the Commission showed coal use continuing at 10 PJ/yr right up to 2050. Continuing to use coal, the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel, up to 2050 is utterly irresponsible in a climate emergency. CANA wants coal phased out by 2027.”

“But the final advice is even worse. It appears NZ Steel have got in the Commission’s ear and persuaded the Commission that their antiquated, polluting technology should be allowed to continue at even higher levels past 2050 – in fact, at twice the level in the draft advice.”

“This is terrible advice,” Tim Jones said. “Alternatives to using coal to make steel exist, and will be available well before 2050. This backsliding by the Commission shows that we need as a country to have a real debate about alternatives for coal for high-temperature industrial processes, instead of allowing vested interests like NZ Steel to sweet-talk the Commission into allowing coal a future that is bad for Aotearoa and bad for the planet.”

The post Climate Change Commission slammed for doubling coal use in 2050 in final advice appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.