Hodgson Pete: Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hodgson Pete: Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:610;Page:7583] 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Convenor Ministerial Group on Climate Change) 
: 
 I move  
That the Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 The policy papers that led to this bill were signed both by me as Convenor of the Ministerial Group on Climate Change and by the Minister for the Environment. That partnership has been very important in the development of the bill. 
The bill supports the Government’s climate change and energy policy through amendments to the Resource Management Act. It recognises the Government’s preference for national coordination of controls on greenhouse gas emissions and it gives greater emphasis to climate change in Resource Management Act planning and decision making on energy matters. The bill introduces an explicit requirement for those exercising functions and powers under the Resource Management Act to have particular regard to a series of new matters. They include energy efficiency the effects of climate change and the benefits to be derived from the use and development of renewable energy. Accordingly clause 5 amends the Resource Management Act by inserting the new matters into section 7 of the Act. Whilst some councils are already incorporating such matters in their planning documents and consent decisions that practice is not consistent across the country. 
The bill provides national direction by ensuring that efficient use of energy the benefits of renewable energy and the effects of climate change are flagged for the attention of those working with the Resource Management Act. For example it requires local authorities considering proposed wind-farming projects to have particular regard to the benefits of lower greenhouse gas emissions offered by such an energy source. That does not confer automatic approval on renewable energy proposals but it requires anyone exercising functions and powers under the Resource Management Act to take those matters into consideration. 
With regard to climate change the bill requires local authorities to consider and plan for associated effects such as changes in typical rainfall patterns sea-level rises increased risk of flooding and coastal erosion. The amendment is consistent with the Resource Management Act principle that local government is usually best placed to make decisions on local matters. However the bill also reflects the fact that some discharges of greenhouse gases are best dealt with using national mechanisms rather than localised Resource Management Act decisions. Clauses 6 and 7 insert new sections that specifically provide that when making rules and considering consent applications relating to the discharge of greenhouse gases from industrial or trade premises a regional council must not have regard to the effects of those discharges on climate change. Those amendments do not indicate a lack of Government concern about greenhouse gas emissions. On the contrary we propose them because greenhouse gas emissions are so important that they should be managed through national mechanisms—namely those in our climate-change policies. 
There are two exceptions to those exclusion provisions. First we want regional councils to be able to consider greenhouse gas emissions when implementing national environmental standards that address those matters. A national environmental standard is a potential national mechanism established by regulation under the Resource Management Act. While it is set nationally it is administered locally by regional councils. Accordingly the bill provides for regional councils to make rules and consider consent applications addressing those matters but only to implement a national and environmental standard and only to an extent that is not more or less restrictive than the standard allows. 
 The second exception provides that a regional council may have regard to the effects on climate change of an activity involving the use and development of renewable energy to the extent that it reduces discharges of greenhouse gases. That supports the policies within the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy and the amendments to section 7 of the Resource Management Act which I identified earlier. 
The last two clauses of the bill provide transitional provisions. Clause 8 requires that any resource consent application designation notice or application to change a consent condition filed prior to the commencement of the bill shall be completed to the end of any appeals under the Resource Management Act as if the bill had not been enacted. This provision allows all parties to complete the process under the same rules as they started and accords with natural justice considerations. This is particularly important under the Resource Management Act which has significant provisions for public participation throughout these processes. Clause 9 revokes any existing rule in a regional plan that relates solely to the control of the effects on climate change of greenhouse gas emissions from any industrial or trade premises. This is necessary to give proper effect to the provisions within the bill. 
Collectively these changes to the Resource Management Act will support existing Government policy on energy efficiency renewable energy and climate change. They will provide national leadership clearer responsibilities and reduced administration compliance and participation costs in respect of energy and climate-change matters. At the appropriate time I will move that the bill be referred to the Local Government and Environment Committee and that the committee report the bill finally to the House by Tuesday 25 November 2003. I commend the bill to the House.