The National Party says it can’t support the Climate Change Commission’s draft plan to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions unless changes are made.But firstly, there was never any "consensus" on climate change: while they didn't vote against it, National opposed the Zero Carbon Act, and explicitly promised to gut it and abandon the 1.5 degree Paris target if ever elected again. They pretended to cooperate, used that pretence to extract concessions on agricultural targets, then explicitly repudiated them the instant they were passed. Secondly, unpacking their "objections", what they boil down to is "emissions reduction would be too expensive", which is the same drum they've been banging for the past thirty years.If National maintains this position when the Government puts its response to the commission’s final advice to a vote in Parliament later this year, it could shatter a bipartisan consensus on climate change that has lasted for just two years.
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In a submission to the commission on its draft emissions reduction plan, Smith said National’s chief objections included a lack of transparency from the commission about the modelling of the economic effects of emissions reduction, and a lack of detail around the more than 70 policies it suggested could be implemented to curb emissions.
In other words, National is still not serious on this issue, and have nothing to offer on it. Any pretence of "cooperation" is simply an exercise in bad faith aimed at further weakening and delaying action. Their message to the climate strikers and everyone concerned about this is "fuck you, and fuck your future". And its time the government stood up for us gave that message right back to them. They have a majority; its time they actually used it to pass some effective policy, rather than wasting their time seeking "consensus" with bad faith actors who are fundamentally opposed to doing anything.