The New Zealand Budget has allocated $NZ67.4 million ($A62.6 million) to help the public sector reduce its carbon footprint by 2025.
From that year Government Departments and Agencies will have to buy carbon offsets to cover any planet-heating emissions they haven’t squeezed out of their operations.
Schools, District Health Boards and Kāinga Ora will also have to buy offsets at some point, though their deadline hasn’t been set.
Public organisations must plan how they’ll cut gases, cull unnecessary vehicles from their fleets, choose electric vehicles (EVs) when they can, and lease better-insulated large buildings.
Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw (pictured) described the 2025 offset deadline as “a bit of a rod for Agencies’ backs”.
“If you haven’t managed to eliminate your emissions by 2025 you’re going to have to pay for the work that you haven’t done,” Mr Shaw said.
However, the Budget funding will help the public sector cut emissions, including support for the State Sector Decarbonisation Fund, which supports schools, hospitals and other public services to ditch coal boilers and buy EVs.
Climate advocates are likely to be disappointed with the scale of the package.
Media inquiries have revealed that an estimated 1,150 State schools still burn fossil fuels to heat classrooms, including at least 200 schools using coal.
Erica Finnie, of climate change advocate 350 Aotearoa, said previous funding for the conversion of State Schools to renewables was “entirely inadequate” if the Government wanted schools to be fossil fuel-free by 2025.
Ms Finnie, and other campaigners, had hoped the Budget would supply a massive boost.
Asked if the Government could justify funding EVs when there were still coal boilers heating schools, Mr Shaw said there would be more funding to come, and the physical process of replacing boilers was constrained.
“This is really just getting us going. In some places… people weren’t actually planning on replacing those boilers [so] it’s quite a long planning process for some of those,” Mr Shaw said.
Wellington, 17 May 2021
