The Minister for Climate Change has launched a bold work programme for the period 2018- regarding climate change that received endorsement from the Cabinet on 18 December 2017.[1] The centre-piece of the programme is the Zero Carbon Bill that is proposed to be introduced to Parliament by 31 October 2018 following a comprehensive public consultation process. The proposed Bill will include proposals for a revised 2050 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target, and the establishment of an independent Climate Change Commission. The Bill will set out the role, powers and functions of the proposed Commission, while the public consultation process will canvass the options for both the 2050 GHG target and the structure of the Commission before decisions are made on the final shape of the proposed Bill by Cabinet before 31 August 2018. The Bill will be given priority in the Government’s legislative programme and should (all things being equal) become law sometime during 2019.
While further economic modelling and analysis is required, the Minister has announced the intention to adopt a 2050 net zero GHG emissions target.[2] To ensure that a “just and effective” transition to a green economy is achieved, the Cabinet minute sets out a series of four design principles to inform the proposed legislation, namely:[3]
- taking a transparent and participative approach to climate change policy, with wide community, business and Maori engagement and consultation (acting consisently with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi), and ensuring cross-party support;
- ensuring that policy settings provide investment predictability, so as to help businesses and communities plan ahead by being clear about what the government’s climate change goals are now;
- being ambitious with respect to reducing New Zealand’s gross emissions by not unduly relying on international emissions reductions to meet the government’s targets, while retaining all options at this point;
- creating enduring institutional arrangements for climate change and environmental governance, with decisions underpinned by strong data and evidence.
The tenor of these principles echo both the anxiety to avoid any adverse effects on competitiveness at risk sectors of the New Zealand economy from when the preferred policy package for addressing climate change, focused on the New Zealand emissions trading scheme (ETS), was resolved in the period 2002-2008; and the need for New Zealand to adopt an ambitious approach to GHG emissions targets that underscored the decisions in Urgenda Foundation v Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment) and Sarah Thomson v Minister for Climate Change.[4] Principle 4 also foreshadows the potential need for wider environmental reform to address climate change adaptation and mitigation.
In relation to the proposed Climate Change Commission, the Cabinet minute sets out the Government’s intention to establish an Interim Climate Change Committee that will be tasked with preparing “evidence and analysis on priority matters” that will be provided to the Commission so that it can hit the ground running.[5] In particular, the importance of advancing interim policy work on “the role of agriculture in climate change” and “transitioning to 100 per cent renewable electricity” were also stressed as priority areas for the Committee to address.[6] Again, the emphasis is placed on the ability of the Commission, when established, to make recommendations based on the policy work of the Committee on these matters. To advance these matters, the Minister was tasked with reporting back to Cabinet by 28 February 2018 on the terms of reference for the Committee, and “the timing and sequencing of key government decisions on priority climate change policy matters”.[7]
Finally, to ensure “joined-up government” the Government proposes to establish a Climate Change Chief Executive Board and to hold regular meetings of a Ministers group led by the Minister for Climate Change comprising his ministerial colleagues “holding relevant portfolios, such as Environment, Energy and Resources, Forestry, Agriculture and Transport”.[8] In the same vein, the relevant Ministers are requested to explore and report back to Cabinet on “options for introducing climate change impact assessments” by 15 December 2018.[9] Overall, this is a bold suite of policy proposals and the test will lie in the substance of the legislative and governance changes that are ultimately enacted and implemented.
Dr Trevor Daya-Winterbottom, Faculty of Law, University of Waikato
[1] Cabinet, Minute of Decision, CAB-17-MIN-0547.01.
[2] James Shaw, Minister for Climate Change, “National Statement from New Zealand to 23rd Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC”, Release, 17 November 2017.
[3] Cabinet, Minute of Decision, CAB-17-MIN-0547.01, paragraphs 5.1-5.4.
[4] Urgenda Foundation v Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment) Hague DC C/09/456689/HA 2A 13-1-1396 (Chamber for Commercial Affairs, 24 June 2015); Sarah Thomson v Minister for Climate Change [2017] NZHC 733.
[5] Cabinet, Minute of Decision, CAB-17-MIN-0547.01, paragraph 9.
[6] Cabinet, Minute of Decision, CAB-17-MIN-0547.01, paragraph 8.
[7] Cabinet, Minute of Decision, CAB-17-MIN-0547.01, paragraph 11.
[8] A term coined by the Blair Labour Government in 1997 that envisages a holistic approach to public policy based on the method of effective communication between different government departments (Oxford English Dictionary); Cabinet, Minute of Decision, CAB-17-MIN-0547.01, paragraph 17.
[9] Cabinet, Minute of Decision, CAB-17-MIN-0547.01, paragraph 16.