Last week’s release of the Government’s Energy and Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy contained a lot about fossils, and very little else. Reading their document, you get the sense that they have no new ideas on how to reduce New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, or to move to a lower-pollution economy.
I think Gerry needs a bit of help, so here is an idea.
Labor in Australia is mooting a cleaner car rebate, offering a $2000 boost to new car buyers trading in pre-1995 cars. The scheme is aimed to get 200,000 older vehicles off the road, cut transport sector emissions by nearly 3 million tonnes, and allow for tough new mandatory vehicle emissions regulations to enter into force in 2015. Their rebate would take effect from 1 January 2011.
It is the kind of measure envisaged by the New Zealand Transport Strategy in the last Labour-led Government back in 2008. One of the goals of the Transport Strategy then was to get New Zealand’s transport sector emissions down by 50% by 2040
A ‘cash for clunkers’ scheme is just one of the complementary measures, which could have been funded via Labour’s ETS. Before it was amended by National last year to subsidise emitters at the expense of households, the ETS would have made revenues available from the sale of emissions permits to pay for exactly this sort of measure.
New Zealand’s car fleet has an average age of 12 years. A ‘cash for clunkers’ scheme would help kiwi households struggling with higher living costs to modernise their cars. It would help them more easily choose safer, modern, lower-emission, cheaper to run vehicles that would be better for the environment.
Instead of rolling back proposals to lower pollution, like the biofuels obligation; hiding behind the recession to produce a temporary drop in emissions; or pretending that its watered-down ETS will make a difference, the Government should look seriously at schemes like the cleaner car rebate as a practical way to reduce emissions and give families a helping hand.
