NZCPR Weekly: The Wrong Path

Dear NZCPR Reader,   

In this week’s NZCPR newsletter we question the Climate Commission’s recommendations and explain why they are not needed, our NZCPR Guest Commentator Derek Mackie outlines why the Government’s climate change agenda represents an ideological crusade, and our poll asks whether you support Jacinda Ardern’s car tax.

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Matt Burgess: The Climate Commission’s transparency problem

It is now three weeks and three days since the Climate Change Commission extended the submissions deadline for its draft emissions budgets by two weeks.

The extension was prompted by concerns about the Commission’s refusal to release selected data from its models.

The extension pushed the submissions deadline just beyond four weeks, the required turnaround time under the Official Information Act (OIA). We immediately lodged an OIA request with the Commission for “all data on the marginal abatement costs of electric vehicles”. The Commission’s response is due in five days.

Our request aims to solve an enduring mystery behind the centrepiece of the Commission’s emissions strategy, their proposed ban of petrol and diesel light vehicle imports from 2032. Under the Commission’s plan, only electric vehicles (EVs) will be imported after that date.