Simon Court
ACT Environment and Climate Change spokesperson
The Government’s plan to force retailers in to using biofuels will pump up the price of fuel and is pointless when the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) can help us meet our targets anyway.
MBIE have warned the Government that their mandate will increase the price of fuel by 5-10c per litre. Once again consumers are footing the bill so the Government can implement a costly but ineffective ideological policy.
There are also concerns about the environmental viability of biofuels, with many environmental organisations raising questions about impacts on tropical forests from its production.
The Government wants to sting companies failing to meet their biofuel mandates up to $800 per tonne of carbon emitted, increasing the penalty from $300 per tonne currently. That makes no sense when fuel companies could mitigate their emissions more efficiently and at less cost to the consumer and the environment through the ETS, which is currently around $75 per tonne.
This Government doesn’t know how to do anything except mandate and tax. This won’t reduce global emissions but will further increase the cost of living.
If the Government was really focused on meeting our emissions targets it should adopt ACT’s climate policy to set a cap on total emissions in line with the actual reductions of our trading partners, then allow New Zealanders to import high-quality foreign carbon credits so we pay the world price, not an artificial price.
Climate change is a global issue, and we need to act globally to reduce emissions.
