Since taking office there has been a comprehensive move to address climate change. The banning of oil exploration is a very significant step. Because of the money involved and the well-practised PR strategies that are used by the fossil fuel industry, there will be criticism and noise. Anyone who doubts that the fossil fuel industry is a force to be reckoned with just google the clean coal adverts in America. They are full of images of joyous workers and it is called 'clean coal' - apparently if you say it is 'clean' it must be.
Bottom line, the industry is driven by the profit it is making. It is not there because it wants to provide jobs, clean energy or help our economy. The spin doctors are aware that to assert that this will hurt the economy and cost ordinary people jobs is the best weapon it has in keeping on making money. Thus, we have already heard from the spokespeople, 11,000 jobs will go in Taranaki. That is wildly inflated because it includes the predicted loss of the jobs of car dealers and cafe owners. The actual number of people employed is actually under 5000. Given the length of time this will take very few of the people employed now will lose their jobs.
Employment is of top priority of this Government. It is not called the Labour Party by accident. The assumption of job loss ignores the intention to redevelop the impacted regions over the next decades. Jobs that will be transferred to other clean industries and new jobs will be created within the energy sector. We are going to grow clean energy and create a sustainable economy.
The way this is going to happen is actually very measured and respectful of the legitimate interests of those involved. This action will actually demonstrate that this Government can be trusted to treat business properly, honouring commitments.
We will see these companies fight their corner because that is the nature of the beast. They are just doing their job. The interests of their shareholders are in extracting as much money out of oil and gas as they can but they really have nothing to complain about because this is exactly what a democracy is about. The Government is just doing its job. It is not there to maximise their profit but to put the interests of the people it represents first.
We have a lot of work to do transforming the economy to one that is sustainable but it is also full of new opportunity.
The good news is that New Zealand starts with some real advantages. First, we can generate power in a sustainable way given we have hydro-resources and can generate power from wind. This is not available in other countries.
The agricultural sector and transport are our biggest is emitters of carbon. The movements towards public transport, rail and electric vehicles are all going to significantly reduce these emissions. It will also help if we design our cities as places people will realistically walk and bike to work; something we are working on in Auckland.
Agriculture is tougher. It is so important to our economy that it is currently excluded from the carbon credit system. Farming methods will need to change and the government will need to support that. There are significant environmental advantages in developing a much stronger horticultural economy and refining our primary products before export.
There are opportunities for the development of a much stronger, sustainable and even organic, horticultural sector. Denmark, which has some very similar features in its economy but obviously the advantage of access to the European market, has done this very successfully. The premium it receives on organic and sustainably grown produce is significant.
A recent paper from AUT suggests that one reason we did not do the same was fear that by marketing some of our produce as organic and sustainable we were highlighting that most of what we were producing was not, undermining our clean green brand.
The reality is this sector remains vulnerable to be attacked on this basis until its practices are sustainable, so we better get on with it. The silver lining is Denmark has demonstrated that there is a premium on produce that is 'green'. Obviously, the sooner we do this the better our opportunity for capturing market share. (HELEN WHITE)