Shaw James: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShaw James: General Debate[Sitting date: 03 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4263. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Question time today highlighted a number of ways in which the National Government is being cute when it comes to the economics of climate change. For one National members like the polluting industries that they are trying to protect can see only the costs when it comes to rolling up our sleeves and doing something meaningful to address climate change. Climate change for National is not about the costs that polluters will pay for the damage they are doing to our climate; it is all about the costs that New Zealanders will have to pay on their behalf so the polluters do not have to change. We have made it clear that putting a real price on carbon will flow through the economy. It has to have the transformative effect that we need but it will not leave households and businesses worse off. All the money raised from our carbon tax is paid straight back to families and businesses in the form of a personal and company tax cut. Only those who pollute will actually pay for the pollution.So what is the impact on the wider economy? Government modellers Infometrics has forecast that a 40 percent emissions reduction target by 2030 would cost the economy just one-tenth of 1 percent of GDP growth per year—one-tenth of 1 percent of GDP growth to secure a stable climate and a prosperous future. The other way that National members are being cute on the economics of climate change is how they say nothing about the costs of doing nothing. National will not add up the costs of increasing severe weather events rising sea levels and the millions of dollars of subsidies being paid to polluters through the failed emissions trading scheme. Failure to take action on the climate carries a higher economic cost alongside the moral one. There is also a significant economic opportunity cost of doing nothing meaningful on the climate. By not setting ambitious targets for reducing carbon we will be slow to decarbonise our economy. We will fail to send the kinds of price signals that businesses like Fonterra need to stop investing in new coal-fired plants rather than in renewable energy-fired plants.On the world stage without incentives to innovate and invest in smart green ways of doing business New Zealand companies will miss playing our special part in one of the world’s fastest growing sectors—the cleantech economy. We will be slow to invest in renewable energy plants solar panel installations energy-efficient retrofits the development and production of significant volumes of biofuels electric cars fast trains and all the cleantech services that we are so good at developing in niche fields. A well-regulated market is what is needed to send the clear signals that business needs to divest and then reinvest. A smart use of Government procurement processes is what is needed to help small and medium sized cleantech businesses to scale up to take on the world. A stable consensus across this House on carbon budgets would give the confidence and the certainty that all businesses need to make long-term capital investment decisions. National is getting increasingly out of touch with how modern 21st century economies are going to need to work for them to be able to work at all.I stood for Parliament and for co-leader because I want to change the things that matter. Our current collision course with our climate is something that matters. Despite recent set-backs I would like to build common cause across this House on climate change. The Government is about to set an emissions reduction target to take to the Paris climate talks in December. I want us to talk to each other rather than past each other and agree on an ambitious target that New Zealanders can be proud of. This century will be the century of sustainability. The countries and the businesses that lead the shift to sustainability will prosper the most. Thank you.