By FIONA ROTHERHAM
New Zealand's clean, green image is darkening to dirty brown, says Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons.
At this week's Energy Symposium in Auckland, she said New Zealand was trading internationally on an image that was quite undeserved.
"Some day soon our cover could be blown and the damage to our markets would be considerable."
Her comments come as the Government grapples with meeting its commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions under the Kyoto protocol on climate change.
The Government is also required to produce a national strategy by October next year under the new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, which promotes renewable energy sources.
Proponents of renewable energy are looking for support from the Government's decisions on the David Caygill-chaired electricity inquiry, due to be announced next week.
New Zealanders waste energy. An International Energy Agency study showed that, for its gross domestic product, New Zealand had a high energy use relative to other OECD countries.
IEA economist Lee Schipper criticised New Zealand's information-gathering and record-keeping on energy as the worst he had seen in 14 countries.
A worrying trend was the rise in energy demand, he said. As GDP grew, New Zealanders could be expected to heat their homes and drive their cars more, further fuelling emission levels.
Cabinet papers giving the first broad-brush strokes on policy options for Kyoto targets are expected to be made public today. They are understood to narrow a range of measures the Government will introduce before the protocol is ratified in mid-2002.
This mix of price and non-price measures is part of a fuller package tailored to fit in with the electricity inquiry decisions and the legislative strategy due out in draft form in April.
New Zealand is committed to stabilising its emissions at 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012. Legislation will need to be introduced into Parliament by November 2001 to meet the deadline.
Latest information suggests the country's gross carbon dioxide emissions have risen 19.2 per cent since 1990, the highest of any OECD country.
Predictions from the Ministry of Economic Development estimate that, unless action is taken, our total greenhouse emissions will be 30 per cent to 40 per cent above 1990 levels.
The Kyoto measures outlined in the Cabinet papers include the fastest and cheapest option, energy efficiency.
New Zealand has been criticised by the OECD for under-investing in energy efficiency. Unlike most other Western countries, it has no minimum energy performance standards or energy efficiency targets.
The Government is throwing support behind public transport as New Zealanders' love affair with the car means domestic transport now accounts for 20 per cent of total carbon dioxide emissions.
Energy Minister Pete Hodgson has introduced stronger energy efficiency requirements for better insulation and lighting under the Building Code. Mandatory energy performance standards for energy-using products such as appliances, equipment and vehicles are likely to come under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act.
Negotiated agreements with industry to reduce emission levels are also being discussed.
Voluntary agreements signed in 1995 by 23 industrial corporates and three industry sectors have largely met the less-than-onerous targets.
The Greenhouse Policy Coalition, an employers' lobby group set up in 1995, favours replacing the voluntary agreements which expire later this year with negotiated agreements and legislated penalties for not achieving emission reduction targets. In exchange, it wants exemptions from any future carbon tax for those companies involved.
Coalition chairwoman Maria Robertson said: "It would be irresponsible if industry was held to account for a second time. That's double dipping."
The coalition opposes two other measures on the agenda, a domestic and international emissions trading regime and a carbon tax to be introduced after the next election.
Raising fuel taxes is opposed by employers and manufacturers. Their association chief executive, Alasdair Thompson, told the conference he doubted it would make an iota of difference to transport energy losses whereas addressing the lack of motorway capacity in Auckland would.
He said the decision to ratify the Kyoto protocol threatened exports, because imposing carbon taxes ahead of our trading partners would give them a competitive advantage.
Centre for Energy Research director Ralph Sims said replacing fossil fuel use with renewable energy could make a significant contribution to the increasing energy demand while helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
On the face of it, New Zealand has a head start for green energy with more than 70 per cent of its generation from hydro and geothermal sources. But new large-scale hydro projects are limited by environmental and social factors. Thermal generation is playing an increasingly important role while new renewables account for only 6.8 per cent of consumer energy demand.
Even the total amount of electricity generated from water flows into our hydro system has shrunk. It is speculated that 3000 GWh of hydro potential was spilled in the past year in favour of gas-fired generation. Critics suggest market games by electricity generators are taking precedence over efficient water use.
The Australian Government requires electricity retailers to source an additional 2 per cent of the power they sell from new renewable sources by 2010, backed up by financial incentives.
Other countries have introduced a variety of measures from fossil fuel taxes to capital subsidies and mandated electricity purchases.
The New Zealand Government has done nothing so far, despite having some of the best wind sites in the world.
The Wind Energy Association's submissions to the electricity inquiry asked the Government to remove barriers for embedded generation. As a first step, it wanted ownership limitations on line companies removed.
Jeanette Fitzsimons said the wholesale electricity market rules made it almost impossible for demand-side energy efficiency or new renewables, especially wind, to be accepted into the market.
"If we were to ask nothing more of the Government than to create a genuinely level playing field that would achieve a lot."
Keith Turner, a member of the Business Council for Sustainable Development, said that while New Zealand had missed the boat on being a world leader in the wind industry, it could benefit from a forecast shift to a hydrogen-powered economy.
Significant effort had been put into fuel cells by overseas companies which saw fuel cell and hydrogen-fuelled vehicles as the way of the future.
Dr Turner, head of Meridian Energy, argued that New Zealand could use offpeak hydro power to generate hydrogen for fuel cell cars, significantly reducing transport sector carbon dioxide emissions.
Mr Schipper said the bottom line was that New Zealand was getting browner but its future looked greener. "The issues are how fast, how far and how profitable?"
Byline1: By FIONA ROTHERHAM
Body1: New Zealand's clean, green image is darkening to dirty brown, says Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons.
At this week's Energy Symposium in Auckland, she said New Zealand was trading internationally on an image that was quite undeserved.
"Some day soon our cover could be blown and the damage to our markets would be considerable."
Her comments come as the Government grapples with meeting its commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions under the Kyoto protocol on climate change.
The Government is also required to produce a national strategy by October next year under the new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, which promotes renewable energy sources.
Proponents of renewable energy are looking for support from the Government's decisions on the David Caygill-chaired electricity inquiry, due to be announced next week.
New Zealanders waste energy. An International Energy Agency study showed that, for its gross domestic product, New Zealand had a high energy use relative to other OECD countries.
IEA economist Lee Schipper criticised New Zealand's information-gathering and record-keeping on energy as the worst he had seen in 14 countries.
A worrying trend was the rise in energy demand, he said. As GDP grew, New Zealanders could be expected to heat their homes and drive their cars more, further fuelling emission levels.
Cabinet papers giving the first broad-brush strokes on policy options for Kyoto targets are expected to be made public today. They are understood to narrow a range of measures the Government will introduce before the protocol is ratified in mid-2002.
This mix of price and non-price measures is part of a fuller package tailored to fit in with the electricity inquiry decisions and the legislative strategy due out in draft form in April.
New Zealand is committed to stabilising its emissions at 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012. Legislation will need to be introduced into Parliament by November 2001 to meet the deadline.
Latest information suggests the country's gross carbon dioxide emissions have risen 19.2 per cent since 1990, the highest of any OECD country.
Predictions from the Ministry of Economic Development estimate that, unless action is taken, our total greenhouse emissions will be 30 per cent to 40 per cent above 1990 levels.
The Kyoto measures outlined in the Cabinet papers include the fastest and cheapest option, energy efficiency.
New Zealand has been criticised by the OECD for under-investing in energy efficiency. Unlike most other Western countries, it has no minimum energy performance standards or energy efficiency targets.
The Government is throwing support behind public transport as New Zealanders' love affair with the car means domestic transport now accounts for 20 per cent of total carbon dioxide emissions.
Energy Minister Pete Hodgson has introduced stronger energy efficiency requirements for better insulation and lighting under the Building Code. Mandatory energy performance standards for energy-using products such as appliances, equipment and vehicles are likely to come under the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act.
Negotiated agreements with industry to reduce emission levels are also being discussed.
Voluntary agreements signed in 1995 by 23 industrial corporates and three industry sectors have largely met the less-than-onerous targets.
The Greenhouse Policy Coalition, an employers' lobby group set up in 1995, favours replacing the voluntary agreements which expire later this year with negotiated agreements and legislated penalties for not achieving emission reduction targets. In exchange, it wants exemptions from any future carbon tax for those companies involved.
Coalition chairwoman Maria Robertson said: "It would be irresponsible if industry was held to account for a second time. That's double dipping."
The coalition opposes two other measures on the agenda, a domestic and international emissions trading regime and a carbon tax to be introduced after the next election.
Raising fuel taxes is opposed by employers and manufacturers. Their association chief executive, Alasdair Thompson, told the conference he doubted it would make an iota of difference to transport energy losses whereas addressing the lack of motorway capacity in Auckland would.
He said the decision to ratify the Kyoto protocol threatened exports, because imposing carbon taxes ahead of our trading partners would give them a competitive advantage.
Centre for Energy Research director Ralph Sims said replacing fossil fuel use with renewable energy could make a significant contribution to the increasing energy demand while helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
On the face of it, New Zealand has a head start for green energy with more than 70 per cent of its generation from hydro and geothermal sources. But new large-scale hydro projects are limited by environmental and social factors. Thermal generation is playing an increasingly important role while new renewables account for only 6.8 per cent of consumer energy demand.
Even the total amount of electricity generated from water flows into our hydro system has shrunk. It is speculated that 3000 GWh of hydro potential was spilled in the past year in favour of gas-fired generation. Critics suggest market games by electricity generators are taking precedence over efficient water use.
The Australian Government requires electricity retailers to source an additional 2 per cent of the power they sell from new renewable sources by 2010, backed up by financial incentives.
Other countries have introduced a variety of measures from fossil fuel taxes to capital subsidies and mandated electricity purchases.
The New Zealand Government has done nothing so far, despite having some of the best wind sites in the world.
The Wind Energy Association's submissions to the electricity inquiry asked the Government to remove barriers for embedded generation. As a first step, it wanted ownership limitations on line companies removed.
Jeanette Fitzsimons said the wholesale electricity market rules made it almost impossible for demand-side energy efficiency or new renewables, especially wind, to be accepted into the market.
"If we were to ask nothing more of the Government than to create a genuinely level playing field that would achieve a lot."
Keith Turner, a member of the Business Council for Sustainable Development, said that while New Zealand had missed the boat on being a world leader in the wind industry, it could benefit from a forecast shift to a hydrogen-powered economy.
Significant effort had been put into fuel cells by overseas companies which saw fuel cell and hydrogen-fuelled vehicles as the way of the future.
Dr Turner, head of Meridian Energy, argued that New Zealand could use offpeak hydro power to generate hydrogen for fuel cell cars, significantly reducing transport sector carbon dioxide emissions.
Mr Schipper said the bottom line was that New Zealand was getting browner but its future looked greener. "The issues are how fast, how far and how profitable?"
Clean and green changing to dirty and brown
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