Consultation: Ināia tonu nei – Climate action for Aotearoa

The country and the world stopped for a virus threatening to kill a low percentage of the population, quickly. If we do not act for climate change, there will be (and already has been) extinction for some species and the deaths for the human population will be significantly higher. There will also be an increase to the number of people being pushed into a state of poverty.

If we do take drastic action, now, we can improve the lives of many people as well as restore ecosystems and prevent extinctions. People have just learned about what is important with the Covid action. People are ready now. If we act now, look after our world and each other, our lives can be amazing.

There are too many potential variables and we need to plan for the worse case. Each IPCC report shows the situation is worse than previous predictions.
If we put in more effort than required, it's a win. If we put in less, it's catastrophic and we can't go back.

The Christchurch Envirohub commend CCC for your proposed approach and considering the effects, especially the care to support vulnerable groups. However, now is a time that people would be most receptive to a more radical change. Many people are struggling financially after Covid and there are also people struggling to find suitable affordable housing. It still doesn't need to be as disruptive as a Covid level change and it would be a relief to people that are struggling.

CCC state, "The Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) alone won’t get us to where we need to be. Action is needed across all sectors of the economy."
The Christchurch Envirohub agree and are pleased to see this is acknowledged. However, capitalism is not a sustainable economic system. Refining the ETS so it is applied to all incomes may be a way to create a sustainable economy. A sustainable economy can enable the work that needs to be done, without waiting for budgets and funding from central government.

The ETS could be used to pay people for doing any environmental work, restoration, planting as well as volunteer work. People could also get credits for biking or taking public transport and for buying local. Canterbury University and other groups have already started working on such systems. A sustainable economy can enable the work that needs to be done, without waiting for budgets and funding from central government.

Let's find a way to speed up the process that benefits individuals for the actions they take now.

We are still seeing constant plans for growth. The human population cannot carry on increasing exponentially. This is difficult to raise but are we leaving it for our children to address this?

We have a housing crisis, now. This does need to be addressed. Each new subdivision reduces the potential for farm land, commercial food resources and ecology restoration. We need to consider how our children will live in the future, now. Any new developments should have smaller homes, smaller or no backyards and more shared space for community gardens, sharing resources and sheds. Living spaces can be embedded among our natural environment. Will our children need to travel to work? Or will many jobs be online or involvement in maintaining community areas?

Every delay we have on implementing change is leaving more for our children to fix. A recent study found over 60% of New Zealand children worry about the climate crisis at least once a day. In Wales they have a commission for future generations. This is a commission that could be developed to work alongside CCC.

The Christchurch Envirohub is pleased to see CCC proposing, "the NDC would need to be strengthened to reflect emission reductions of much more than 35% below 2005 levels by 2030." This is a good focus for a New Zealand, as a first world country, putting more emphasis on the "much more than" portion of this quote.

We are also pleased to see offshore mitigation is not to do less domestically but to increase contributions. New Zealand should not be relying on offshore credits in any way to meet targets. New Zealand has low energy resources and priority should be to utilise these. It should also be ensured the value of these contributions is not publicised in a way that could threaten the credibility of New Zealand's contribution.

The Christchurch Envirohub strongly agree to prioritise growing new native forests. It's great that it is acknowledged this can be started on unproductive land straight away. This could also be applied to urban areas to enhance the wellbeing of communities and bring native birds into the cities.

Proposing "By 2050, carbon removals from forests should only be used when there are no technologies or changes which could avoid creating emissions in the first place." This is a good proposal but it could be implemented a significantly sooner than 2050. An ETS economy would enable land owners to get credits for any forests. This could also be applied to native plant contributions in urban areas.

There are many barriers as address by CCC and we are looking at changing habits and behaviours that have been developed through marketing and consumerism and living in a capitalism society.

If an ETS credit or debit was applied to every good or service based on the environmental impact, it creates an awareness. An economy based around the ETS enables:
- people to be rewarded for sustainable transport choices
- consumers to be rewarded for buying local with no packaging
- farmers to be rewarded for sustainable farming practice and having native forest areas
- people to be rewarded for keeping resources out of landfill, sharing and repairing
- a debit for items imported with no opportunity for repair
Every year everyone does their tax return. A ETS return could work alongside this. Volunteers, carers, teachers, conservation workers, social enterprises would likely get a credit. Business would need to submit actions they have taken and would be able to look at opportunities to improve and work towards getting a credit instead of a debit. They could pay so they are able to start each year at zero rather than accrue more debt. Experts specialising in helping businesses can be paid in ETS credits to help business achieve goals.
These ideas may or may not work with the ETS scheme. But we are a smart species and we recognise there needs to be a drastic but achievable change. Let's think beyond what we know and is familiar. Let's design a system that works for New Zealanders.

CCC has been ambitious and goals are achievable. The Christchurch Envirohub highly commend CCC for producing an ambitious emissions budget. This is was does need to be done, at a minimum.

We need to design a system that enables the work to be done quicker than proposed and it is pleasing CCC are looking at a wholistic approach. A sustainable economy is the key. Whether, it's through the ETS as part of the NZD currency, a separate currency or another system altogether. Once we have that system in place we can enable the work to be done. We can repair our ecosystems, build our connection with the environment and began to repair the atrocities of the past. New Zealand with not only lead the world with our reduced emmissions, life for all New Zealanders will be amazing.