The government made a "big" climate announcement today: a $2 billion climate infrastructure fund to invest in the transition to renewable energy. But it won't be funded by the government, or even by New Zealanders. No, instead, our renewable energy transition will be paid for by international vulture-capitalists, Blackrock.
Its hard to be enthused or excited about this. Not least because Labour has consciously chosen to partner to one of the biggest investors in climate destruction on the planet. Could they really not find anyone else? So that's a "meh" right there. Yes, its better that they're investing in renewables than fossil fuels, but still, meh. And its not as if there's any great shortage of investment in this area, at least judging by the number of wind and solar projects in the pipeline. Every bit helps, of course, but its hard to get excited about just a bit more money in the pile. So that's another "meh". In fact, the real barrier to our transition seems to be the structure of the energy market and the gentailer cartel's reluctance to invest in things that would reduce electricity prices, and hence their profits. Blackrock is unlikely to fix this - they will want a return on their investment, so won't actually want to push fossil generation out of the market - and the fact that the fund includes hydrogen as well suggests it will be as much about increasing demand (and power prices) as renewable electricity. So triple meh. And on the gripping hand: electricity is about 6% of our total emissions. Its good that we're working on a solution, and seem to have a clear pathway to eliminate them (and reduce transport and industrial process emissions into the bargain). But meanwhile, agriculture, our biggest polluter, is responsible for 49% of our emissions - and the government is doing nothing about them. When we have a $2 billion fund to destroy the polluting dairy industry, then maybe then it’ll be worth getting excited about.
