Shaw JamesCLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSE (EMISSIONS TRADING REFORM) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon JAMES SHAW (Minister for Climate Change): I move That the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Reform) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. E Te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. In 2018 not too long after we got into Government the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report on what it is going to take to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Staying below that 1.5 degree threshold the report said is the best chance that we have of avoiding the worst of the climate crisis. But there was more to it than that. The report provided us with absolute clarity on the challenge that we have ahead of us. Specifically it said that we need to cut carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2030 and to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. There was a seismic shift in our understanding of what our children would inherit if we do not act.When that report was published we had 12 years left to make the necessary emissions reductions. But we don't have 12 years any more. Now we have only 10 and soon it will be nine. With nearly three decades of inaction behind us we came into Government at the last possible moment before the window of opportunity to change course closes for ever. That is why we have spent the last three years putting in place the institutional framework to bend the curve of our emissions downwards something that has never happened before in our country. Once passed the reforms contained in this bill will be a critical part of that framework.Before I touch on the role it will play I want to spend a moment reflecting on how we got here. It's a journey not started by me I might add but by the previous Government. Five years ago they realised that a cap and trade system without a cap was failing to deliver on its primary purpose of cutting pollution. It has been accepted for decades that a well-designed system for pricing emissions needs to be a central part of any Government's climate policy framework. Now what we've had until now has neither been well designed nor a part of a broader policy framework. Some might have wanted to throw it out and start again from scratch but as the old saying goes a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. So instead we chose to take the emissions trading system and to fix it. From now on we will have a clear transparent and predictable set of rules for emissions pricing which will drive investment into low-carbon solutions to cut pollution.Change is a collective effort. There are hundreds of people both inside and outside of Government who have worked on this bill. But there are a few people who I'd like to thank in particular: first the stellar team at the Ministry for the Environment who led by the Secretary for the Environment Vicky Robertson have worked under astonishing pressure to get this bill to a place where it can bring about lasting change. They worked alongside the equally stellar team at and the Ministry for Primary Industries—led by Julie Collins and Ray Smith—to develop the nearly two dozen Cabinet papers that form the basis of this legislation. I'd also like to acknowledge and to thank the advisers and the private secretaries in my office past and present who have guided this bill every step of the way and supported me and my colleagues with a great deal of skill and even more patience. Then there are the thousands of individual New Zealanders environmental organisations farmers groups businesses iwi and hapū that took the time to submit to the Environment Committee ably chaired by Dr Duncan Webb as well as the members of that committee themselves. The sum of that work is that finally there will be a sinking lid on the pollution that we put into the atmosphere. There will be finally a proper price on pollution. And we will now finally play our part in tackling the climate crisis and we will do so in a way that is fair and is transparent and is affordable.I will be the first to admit that the emissions trading scheme is a vastly complex system. However the premise is actually pretty simple. A carbon price if high enough provides companies with an incentive to reduce pollution whenever doing so would cost less than paying for permits to pollute—what we call emissions units. In other words when it works it encourages businesses to innovate and to invest in solutions. Together with the introduction of transitional mechanisms like a price floor and a cost containment reserve the price of carbon will not only be sufficiently high to incentivise investment but predictable enough to give companies the confidence that they need to make those investments.There are bound to be people watching what we do here today who will be wondering why we're passing this bill at a time of profound economic crisis and some of those people are in fact sitting in the seats opposite. Now I can give everyone here and everyone watching an hour of their lives back by telling you that the sum total of the National Party's contribution this afternoon will be now is not the time." Well now is precisely the time to be passing this bill. I said at the beginning of my speech that we have 10 years to cut our emissions in half and that shortly drops to nine. And if we kick this bill into the long grass for yet another year that drops to eight. But the size of the effort doesn't reduce. We still have to cut the same amount of pollution whether we do it in eight years or nine years or 10 if we get started today. Every year of delay makes the effort harder and more expensive than if we just got on with it right now. Those calling for delay as they always do are in fact calling for higher costs and greater economic disruption.Now for decades we have been told that we must choose between the environment and the economy and that is and has always been a false choice. A zero-carbon economy will help to create cleaner and more vibrant and safer communities in every part of our country. It will connect our towns and our cities with frequent and fast trains and buses and roads free of congestion. It will create green jobs that pay people enough to provide for their families and to put a roof over their heads. It will support innovation and new investment in clean-tech high-value industries. And the Opposition wants to delay all of those things for yet another year on top of the 30 years of delay that we have endured so far.We have the zero carbon Act; the Climate Change Commission; the first set of emissions Budgets; the first national climate change adaptation risk assessment; the billions that we are investing in rail light rail buses walking and cycling infrastructure; the billion trees programme; the Green Investment Fund; climate impact assessments on Government policy; climate-related risk reporting for large companies and organisations; the electrification of the Public Service car fleet; the end of new offshore oil and gas exploration; and now finally—finally—we have a limit on emissions and a proper price on pollution. I can confidently say that in a single term of Parliament we have done more to stave off the climate crisis than the past 30 years of Governments combined. Perhaps I can put it like this. When we came into Government we had a choice: continue down the high-pollution path towards the climate crisis leaving our kids to suffer the consequences or create something better an economy and a society that is more equitable more prosperous and more innovative—all within planetary limits. This bill and every action that we have taken that preceded it is a result of that choice the choice that we made to build a better future. And today that future is closer within reach than it has ever been before. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa."