Fitzsimons Jeanette: Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:610;Page:7595] 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 It is extraordinary that a few farmers are setting themselves up as more expert on the science of climate change than the whole of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on whose scientific work—the work of hundreds in fact thousands of climatologists—the Kyoto Protocol and the International Agreement on Climate Change is based. It is extraordinary is it not how farmers know so much more! I point out to the House that this bill is not about methane it is not about agriculture and it has nothing whatsoever to say about research levies on methane about farming or about agriculture. It is simply being used as a vehicle for the National Party to try to run its latest campaign in the House. 
The Green Party welcomes legislation that raises the profile of climate change in the everyday decisions that New Zealanders make. We have been calling for this for a long time because we will not solve our contribution to climate change unless it becomes part of the thinking of New Zealanders at every step they take in their lives. This measure raises the profile both of the threat of climate change to our economy our environment our way of life our climate our farming and of the opportunities we have to take action now to prevent this catastrophe from being as bad as it could be. There is no doubt at all that there will be some climate change as a result of what has already been emitted to the atmosphere and what is still being emitted to the atmosphere. That is unavoidable and that is why this bill provides for adaptation strategies to be a part of what local government should consider in their activities under the Resource Management Act. We certainly still have the opportunity to prevent a runaway climate-change effect that would in fact end life as we know it—the way of life that we are used to—if it were allowed to continue. 
 This legislation complements the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act passed in 2000 and the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy set up under that Act which provides many mechanisms for controlling our use of energy moving to more efficient uses of energy and to renewable resources. It complements it by providing for such measures to be taken into account in the decisions made under the Resource Management Act—which are important decisions that otherwise could not be influenced by the National Energy Efficiency Conservation Strategy. 
It is one thing to have overarching policies international agreements the Kyoto Protocol talk of a future carbon tax and carbon trading but we need mechanisms by which the day-to-day decisions that people and local authorities take can occur with climate change in mind. That is what this legislation provides. First of all it raises the status of renewable forms of energy as distinct from fossil fuels. We are at a crisis point in our energy supply. Our largest single fossil fuel reserve the Maui Gas field which has provided us with extraordinarily cheap and abundant energy for the last 25 years is now close to the end of its time. No other source of gas is available at the same price and no other source of gas is available in the same abundance. That means that we are at a decision point now as to how we will replace a third of our primary energy and a quarter of our electricity supply. It will either be with coal—at which stage we may as well leave the Kyoto Protocol because we would have little opportunity of meeting our commitments under that protocol if we were to go that way—or it will be a mixture of efficiency conservation and renewables which are the things provided for in this bill. 
This measure also raises the status of the efficient use of energy so that that can be taken account of in all local authority decisions. For the first time legislation mentions the need for adaptation strategies. Local councils are particularly well placed to think ahead to the effects that climate change particularly rising sea levels and changing rainfall patterns may have on their communities and to put in place robust strategies to build some resilience into their local communities to cope with such things when they occur. This means that when a council is looking at building a coastal road only 1 or 2 metres above sea level it might think again about whether it should be a little higher up. Councils need to be aware of things like sea-water infiltration into sewage freshwater supplies on the coast and the effects of the increased biosecurity threat from tropical pests and diseases that over time will find New Zealand a more welcoming place than they do at the moment. 
The bill establishes that regional councils should not take into account carbon dioxide emissions from power stations and industrial plant when they are giving consents for air discharges. This is because it is easier to deal with those things at a national level than at a local level. I am very glad to see that the removal of carbon dioxide emissions from chimney stacks from the purview of regional councils does not absolve any local authority from taking account of the climate change effects of the other things that they do. The bill specifically provides that councils should still consider the effects on climate change of their other decisions. Those decisions are legion. When a supermarket wants to locate a long way from town the council has the right to consider how many more vehicle kilometres will have to be travelled for people to get to that supermarket if it is away from where people live and away from public transport routes. A council can take climate change into account in its responsibilities for providing for public transport and in its responsibilities to design more sensible urban form whereby land-use activities are located close to public transport corridors and public transport nodes in order to reduce the need for travel and also in its provision of facilities for walking and cycling in order to reduce greenhouse emissions from burning fossil fuels. 
A couple of years ago the Local Government and Environment Committee conducted an inquiry into the role of local government in meeting New Zealand’s climate change target. That inquiry drew heavily on the very generous devotion of time by Local Government New Zealand and many of the councils in New Zealand who met with us to discuss how they saw their role and what kind of legislation they needed to facilitate the clear role they have in addressing climate change. Our committee found: “Resource consent has been approved for two major new fossil fuel-burning power stations since we presented our interim report. We have noted above that it is not clear how the RMA should be applied to sources of greenhouse gas emissions.” The report also states: “We agree with the tenure of submissions”—and this came through strongly from regional councils—“that greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector should be considered at a national level. It is not possible under the RMA for a regional council to require the retirement of an old electricity plant in one region as a condition on the commissioning of a newer more efficient plant in another region.” Those things clearly have to be dealt with at national level. 
Since that time we do have the Government announcement of a carbon tax from 2007 which will restrain fossil fuel - fired power stations. However we still do not know the level of that tax because it will depend on the international price of carbon and there is still some uncertainty about whether the policy will be followed through 4 years from now. There is enough uncertainty around it that I doubt whether it is acting as a sufficiently strong restraint at this stage on the building of new thermal plants. The committee said at the time: “we consider more direct consideration and mitigation of the greenhouse gas emissions of proposed new major electricity plants is necessary at least until climate change policy instruments have brought about significant pricing signals.”