Cheap, reliable energy is the lifeblood of progress. Yet as we approach winter, concerns are already being raised about the security of New Zealand’s electricity supplies.
Because of a lack of rain, our hydro-lakes are lower than they should be at this time of year, and there has already been talk of possible blackouts. While wind and solar energy can help, they are notoriously unreliable. A shortage of natural gas to run the Huntley back-up power generator, and a lack of local coal means more reliance on imported coal.
Looking at our power system as a whole, around 60 percent of our electricity is generated through hydropower, 18 percent geothermal, 9 percent gas, 8 percent wind and solar, and just over 2 percent from coal.
We have more than 100 hydro schemes, seven geothermal plants, 19 operational wind farms, a handful of solar farms, and the country’s main thermal backup generator is the Huntley Power Station, which can run on gas, coal or biomass.
In 2023, New Zealand generated 43,000 gigawatt hours of electricity and consumed 39,000, with households accounting for 35 percent of total consumption, followed by industry on 33 percent, commerce 24 percent, the primary sector 6 percent, and transport less than one percent.
As a result of policies introduced to meet the demands of the United Nations Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the security of New Zealand’s electricity system has been severely compromised through the increasing use of intermittent wind and solar power.
The ultimate objective of 100 percent renewable generation is clearly impossible, but the Government continues to pursue it anyway, even though such policies will undoubtedly lead to escalating prices and power shortages.
However, there is hope on the horizon: around the world it is now dawning on the public that the economic sacrifice they are expected to make as a result of their government’s obsession with the UN’s climate agenda, is all for nothing.
The Paris Agreement cannot deliver net zero by 2050 for the simple reason that the global consensus on which the project was based has collapsed. The Agreement was touted as an “all or nothing” deal. Pressure was put on all countries to sign up. We were told everyone needed to do their bit for it to work. Saving the planet – and saving humanity – was a collaborative effort. It depended on all of us.
In other words, as long as every country contributed to net-zero global emissions by 2050, then the future climate apocalypse predicted by UN climate modellers could be averted.
The implication was that if any country faltered, they would be letting everyone down and disaster would befall the planet.
The fact that three countries out of 200 did not ratify the Agreement was seen as immaterial. While Iran, Libya, and Yemen collectively account for around 2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, this was not regarded as material enough to derail the agenda.
But when three major signatories, China, India and Russia, that together are responsible for 43 percent of global emissions, indicated they would not begin reducing emissions until long past the 2050 deadline, the entire collaborative project should have been aborted. Instead, it was treated as a minor glitch: “nothing to see here”.
With the US now joining their ranks, pushing the collective output of non-complying nations to more than 57 percent of global emissions, it is impossible to ignore – especially as those countries are making no secret of the fact that they are charging full steam ahead in building fossil fuel capacity to power economic growth and boost prosperity.
Thanks to President Donald Trump’s high profile Executive Order to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, the abject futility of the oppressive climate policy regimes being pushed by governments around the world – including New Zealand – can no longer be ignored.
Voters are seeing through the political stupidity and asking why they are being forced to pay for a policy that is destined to fail.
A voter backlash is building.
And what about businesses?
In many countries, the inflated cost of power has forced manufacturers to relocate to nations with more benign policies. Those unable to move out or pass the costs on to consumers, face reduced profitability or closure. The loss of jobs is a tragic testimony of the destructive influence of a climate agenda driven by zealotry instead of reason.
New Zealand saw the effects on business first hand last year when power prices spiked and the forest products company Winstone Pulp International – facing a five-fold escalation in the cost of electricity that took expenditure on power to an unsustainable 40 percent of the company’s costs – closed its doors with the loss of more than two hundred jobs.
Then when North Island wholesale power prices peaked at $826 per megawatt hour, up from $120 the year before, and $56 ten years ago, Pan Pac Forest Products suspended its Hawke’s Bay pulp production until prices came down, saying, “The cost of electricity now far outweighs any profit we can recoup, and it is actually cheaper to halt production.”
With rising power prices forcing up the cost of New Zealand goods and services, there is no doubt that Jacinda Ardern’s Net Zero policies made our problems worse.
As a new Prime Minister back in 2018, claiming that climate change was her generation’s nuclear free moment, she revealed her objectives to students at Victoria University: “When I spoke with Al Gore a few months ago I said that New Zealand’s role in climate change is anchored in who we are as a nation… We have been a world leader on critical issues to humanity by being nuclear free, the first to support women’s vote and now we could be world leading in becoming carbon neutral.”
And so, with Al Gore as a mentor, on the eve of her first major overseas meeting of Commonwealth leaders, Jacinda Ardern set New Zealand on the path to become a world leader in carbon neutrality by announcing a ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration. The fact that there was no warning about her bombshell “Captain’s Call”, no consultation, nor even Cabinet approval, suggests the PM was more concerned about profile building than the good of the country.
While the ban gave her bragging rights on the world stage, locally it was described as “economic vandalism” and a “kick in the guts” for the Taranaki region, that affected 11,000 jobs, a $2.5 billion industry, and led to the decline of our reserves of clean burning natural gas, and an escalation in the importation of Indonesian coal.
It turns out Al Gore was not the only influence on our energy policy. According to then Climate Minister, the Green Party co-leader James Shaw, so too was a youth-based climate activist group Generation Zero: “The Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill was the idea of Generation Zero in 2016, a movement of young people committed to safeguarding the climate that they will grow up in.”
On their website, Generation Zero explains: “Climate change is not only an environmental issue; it is a social issue. Societal inequities caused by the downstream impacts of colonisation and capitalism, place groups such as rangatahi, tangata whenua, tangata moana, people of colour, disabled people, low-income communities, LGBTQIATakatāpui+ folks, women and other marginalised genders on the frontlines of climate change. Decolonisation and upholding mana motuhake as outlined in Te Tiriti o Waitangi are at the heart of this climate-just future.”
No wonder our energy policy is stuffed.
Minister Shaw was also influenced by UK climate leaders, who were invited to New Zealand to advise him on our legislation, which ended up loosely modelled on theirs.
But their model is proving to be a disaster. Although the UK produces only 0.72 percent of global emissions, they now have the highest electricity bills in the developed world, with manufacturers increasingly moving abroad to escape the escalating prices.
While Nigel Farrage’s centre-right Reform Party campaigned at the last election on pulling the country out of the Paris Agreement, the Conservatives have now seen the light.
In a speech last week, their new Party leader Kemi Badenoch described Net Zero by 2050 as ‘fantasy politics’: “Let’s start by telling the truth on energy and net zero. Every single thing we do in our daily lives is dependent on cheap, abundant energy. When energy became cheap and abundant, living standards began to rise, health and life expectancy grew. Cheap, abundant energy is the foundation of civilisation as we know it today. We mess with it at our peril.”
She expressed concern that zero carbon policies were creating a massive over-reliance on China, as the key manufacturer of critical wind, solar, and electric car components. And she pointed out the hypocrisy of climate advocates claiming windfarms, solar farms, and electric cars are a ‘green’ panacea, when they are made with energy from fossil fuels.
Kemi Badenoch believes it’s time to tell the ‘unvarnished truth’: “Net zero by 2050 is impossible. Anyone who has done any serious analysis knows it cannot be achieved without a significant drop in our living standards or worse, by bankrupting us. Responsible leaders don’t indulge in fictions which are going to make families poorer. Or mortgage their children’s future.”
And she made this crucial point: “Without the rest of the world doing the same, we are making our country less safe, less secure and less resilient.”
She could have been speaking about New Zealand.
Without the rest of the world sacrificing their future to chase the impossible zero carbon goal, New Zealanders are being treated like fools. With our contribution to global emissions a miniscule 0.16 percent, our government is deliberately making us all poorer for no good reason.
What’s worse is that the 0.16 estimate uses the overblown values for livestock emissions that Jacinda Ardern and James Shaw adopted to discredit farming. If the true value for methane was used, New Zealand’s emissions would barely register.
This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator electricity systems engineer Bryan Leyland describes how net zero policies have undermined the resilience of New Zealand’s electricity system:
“The previous government’s ban on gas exploration has further limited energy availability, while the push for ‘net zero’ emissions has resulted in a lot of money being squandered on costly and unreliable alternatives.
“Transpower has already warned that the system may not be able to meet the demand on calm, cold winter nights for the next few years or even more.
“Unless effective action is taken, we are at risk of prolonged blackouts lasting days or even weeks in any year with low rainfall. The declining availability of gas will make the situation even worse.
“The belief that wind and solar power can provide cheap, reliable electricity is simply not true. Evidence from overseas shows that increasing the amount of wind and solar power on a system increases the power price.
“More and more countries are actively considering abandoning net zero policies. We should do the same. Continuing with Net Zero policies will inevitably give us an unreliable and expensive supply.”
As Bryan says, all around the world questions over net zero policies are intensifying. It’s time to bring some common sense into this debate.
Extremists like Generation Zero and their promoters within the left-wing media, should be ignored. The Coalition needs to come clean and admit their zero carbon policies are damaging the economy and must be abandoned. Not to do so is unconscionable – New Zealanders would be condemned to falling living standards for no good reason.
The age-old argument that we need to uphold our green credentials in a discerning marketplace, no longer holds water, when our major trading partners including China, the US, and India, have all turned their backs on the UN’s climate agenda.
It is time the Coalition put the interests of New Zealand first by abandoning net-zero policies in order to focus on economic growth.
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THIS WEEK’S POLL ASKS:
*Is it time to abandon net-zero policies to focus on economic growth?
*Poll comments are posted below.
*All NZCPR poll results can be seen in the Archive.
THIS WEEK’S POLL COMMENTS
| Absolutely! The wind and solar generators will never provide a reliable and consistent source of power generation. Will our government have the gumption to abandon the disastrous net-zero policies which ae crippling our economy. Come on, Luxon and co. – stop vacillating and make a decision! | Laurence |
| A Have, that’s always been propaganda, | Tony |
| New Zealand’s ‘contribution’ to world climate change is so tiny we are NOT the country that needs to look at its output | Peter |
| 100% why is the only government brain cell not being used. Common sense please. | Gareth |
| We should never have subscribed to the Paris agreement in the first place just because it was part of the herd mentality. Futile objectives created to bring disorder to the world by energetic activists. It has to GO | Mike |
| We should also actively promote the installation of private solar installations with battery storage. Solar alone is not the solution. Follow Australia’s example- where solar production is massive due to government assistance. Surplus power generation should be fed back into the grid at realistic prices. Private producers should have access to the electricity trading market to maximize heir returns. This is possible in Australia. Come on NZ. Wake up. | Graeme |
| It’s mission impossible – get back to cheaper power and ditch the stone around NZ’s neck re 2050 compliance. What’s good for the goose must also be good for the gander. | John |
| It was flawed logic from the start | Ken |
| Unquestionably. It is past time to withdraw from / abandon the United Nations Paris Agreement on Climate Change . What is more it is also high time we gave more than just serious consideration to and committed to nuclear power generation of electricity. | Hugh |
| Withdrawing from the Paris agreement will not be the end of the world Being less than 0.16% responsibility for global emissions -using incorrect data from CH4g production -being advised that food producing Nations are exempt then it is self evident that we must not bank-rupt our Nation to achieve essentially zero responsibility for any climate change | Stan |
| It was time 20 years ago but unfortunately most of our MPs and our wacko Left-wing Public Service are wedded to this ruinous policy. Despite all the evidence that it doesn’t affect the climate one jot because CO2 is NOT a principal driver of climate change I’m afraid that NZ can’t see the truth staring it in the face and is determined to remain woke and go broke. | Derek |
| Net Zero is a total nonsense, as a country we have to get out of this ridiculous Paris accord. | James |
| Yes yes yes….. .and please hurry! Introduce a small nuclear generation plant in the north of NZ where power demand is high as transmitting power long distances is inefficient! Many countries do it. | Joe |
| Yes!! Abandon the myth because that is all it is. | David |
| Abandon ALL the idiot International agreements that are killing our country. | Bryan |
| It is rubbish fueled by fear to control. | Tash |
| It is high time that people realised what a massive confidence trick has been foisted on us under the title of “Global Warming”, Oops, I mean of course, “Climate Change”, now that it can’t be proved that the globe is actually warming. | TOBY |
| Years too late!! | Chris |
| My main fuel for extracting manuka and kanuka oil was waste oil, which I got for free, because of council rules re storage and emissions I am now burning diesel which has increased my costs by 100 fold, and yes my clients are still with me even though I have passed those costs over to them, the question is as diesel goes up will my clients continue to support me? | sven |
| It’s a scam. We need to not be a part of it. Like genetic engineering, it will destroy our country. | Grant |
| And call for an early election. The imbeciles in Wellington are incompetent and are only interested in their remuneration. | John |
| Absolutely, now is the best chance we’ve got. If we dither and god forbid but the lefties return in 2026 we’ll be back on the path to economic oblivion. | Geoff |
| Without a shadow of doubt, we must scrap this ruinous claptrap once and for all. It is absolutely treasonous for any government to pursue this radical agenda by crippling the country wholesale. Enough is enough, Luxon, Peters and Seymour all need to grow a backbone and get this done. | Neville |
| wE HAVE LISTENED TO THE GREENS AND LABOURFOR FAR TO LONG and time to get out of all the UN agencys | colin |
| If they were serious about climate change, they would be discussing geoengineering. | Robert |
| Absolutely, we should NEVER have joined in the first place. | diana |
| Why would a small country like New Zealand with a very low level of pollution even consider climate change when the largest polluters in the world do not. National Party have lost the plot. | Steve |
| None of the major players are partaking which means our proportion has gone up and means diddly squat and we can’t afford this new figure it’s dragging us down | Laurie |
| From day one it was not in NZ’s interest to bow the global spin of man-made immissions being responsible for the changing climate. As a sovereign country we need to do whatever is in our own interests and growth. | Hugh |
| Absolutely it’s past time to see them go, why are they still here! | Robin |
| We should never have allowed ourselves to be caught up in the woke agenda | Rod |
| For NZ to survive financially we need to cancel the Net-Zero madness,! The fact that National cannot see the writing on the wall in regards to Net-Zero continues to enforce the view they are not much better than the Labour/Green/Maori madness we’ve had to endure. If National cannot turn this around quickly, I can assure them they will not be returned to power in the next election. hopefully it will be a ATC lead government that has the fortitude to do what’s right for the country. | John |
| Economic prosperity should have been one of the coalition’s priorities, along with abandoning all the treaty scams. This country signed up under a National-led government. Now it is time for National to do the right thing. | Gavin |
| Very definitely YES!! | Murray |
| Way way overdue! Should never have occurred in the first place – oil and gas are gifts to us from the creator of the natural world. | Jan |
| We need to return to a life of reality, rather than flounder in one that is being dictated to by the global warming alarmists and their ideologically conforming computer models. | Len |
| Long past the time of abandoning this economic disaster nonesdnse | Hylton |
| Of course it is “Yes” – however, it will never come to pass due to Mr Luxon advocating that the “Science is Proven” for Global Warming……. | Steve |
| Fools and Idiots define the Human Race, always have and always will… Common Sense is somewhere blowing in the wind. | Chris |
| Arderns futile attempt to ‘lead’ our country New Zealand has been an expensive waste of millions of dollars. | Mark |
| It must happen before New Zealand becomes bankrupt. It is a foolhardy goal. | Graeme |
| PM Luxon has got it very wrong. NZ needs to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and support NZ products. Not beg to Nestle and others. | RICHard |
| Green think has been flawed for years | Collin |
| We can’t afford to run out of power | Gavin |
| Only Governments determined to punish their citizens are continuing to support this scam. | Grant |
| We as a country cannot afford to subject to the whims of nature to power our industries and growing population | tony |
| Why persevere with failure | Warren |
| we must get out | duncan |
| Yes! Why is Luxon standing firm while more and m or countries ar pulling out of this ridiculous money extortion scheme? Are we all so stupid and blind that we can’t see what a ratbag Luxon is? He is a WEF placed puppet and they, (Klaus Schwab) is instructing him in the ongoing destruction of NZ. He is standing in the way of progress in NZ with his non negotiable stance on the Net Zero issue, and also Seymour’s Treaty Bill where he won’t allow the bill to progress. We must get rid of him and NZers MUST appoint our next leader (Winston Peters) and not accept another ratbag from the WEF. Until then progress will remain stalled. Wake up NZ. | Carolyn |
| way past due. We cannot afford a fantasy | Phil |
| Trumpy might be a loose cannon but in this,I agree. How is spending billions of dollars saving the rest of the world with net zero,if the rest of the world doesn’t give a stuff about saving themselves, | Peter |
| The cost of net-zero is outrageous we do not nead it | Geoff |
| We should not have joined in the first place. All it has done is given free money to the filthy rich, paid by the poor. | Raymond |
| Global Warming was the biggest scam in the History of the World! They had to change the name to Climate Change in an attempt to sustain support. | Glyn |
| It is a huge cost to NZ that we cannot afford and will be offset by China by morning tea ? | john |
| Paris agreement is a way to one world govt – probably excluding china and Russia. | Chris |
| And it seems that our Government/s have steadfastly ignored the fact that the (rort) Paris agreement does NOT apply to food production. | Sandra |
| The UN -Paris agreement is a con and we must walk away from Net-Zero | Doug |
| BUY YOURSELF A PYRAMID MURIEL, THAT SHOULD SORT OUR POWER PROBLEMS OUT.. MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO THEY HAD A BETTER TECHNOLOGY, THAN THE IDIOTS IN POWER TODAY! | ROD |
| The Greens Globally have a lot to answer for. They should focus on real pollution | DOUGLAS |
| We cannot afford it!! | Graham |
| Definitely and without question. | David |
| Throwing away billions of tax payer money to achieve zero measurable benefit but rather to compromise energy supply and greening of the planet, is negligence. | Craig |
| net zero is an oxymoron and demonstrably impossible but pursued by zealots with no cognizance of cost and impact on the economy and lives but with a vested interest via personal investment in unworkable energy alternatives, funded by government subsidy ( taxpayer ) and/or ideology determined to destroy the industrial West. | Kerry |
| This is urgent! | Brian |
| Careful carbon management and venturing into new mrthods of energy production must be our goal but paying other non-compliant countries for failing to meet targets is economic suicide!! | David |
| Why has it take this long for people to wake up. There was plenty of scientific evidence out there contrring the Zero carbon scam | Peter |
| “Net zero” and anthropogenic climate change are scams | Peter |
| Absolutely….when Russia, China, India etc decide to make changes then perhaps we could look at it again. All other first world countries are making moves to get out of this ridiculous waste of tax payers money. | Richard |
| It constantly surprises me why the current Govt is so slow to reorientate the country away from Labour’s woke politics. | john |
| It has been a farce since day one. The ultimate Emperor%u2019s New Clothes story in real life. | James |
| Go!Go!Go! If only we could have a a government full of people with Shane Jones attitude. | Leonie |
| It was a waste of time from the outset. It a case of the woke left driving the world. | john |
| absolutly yes abandon NOW YOU idiots | bill |
| Obvious! | Bryan |
| As soon as possible. | Tony |
| Winston and Seymour are seeing through the Climate change hoax, why can’t our PM. | Paul |
| Come on, Mr Luxon – join the dots. You can’t claim to be a champion of economic growth in New Zealand while you are willfully killing off the cheap, reliable power supplies that will enable such growth. I suggest you appoint Maureen Pugh as head of your inner advisory team – she had the wisdom to challenge the so-called science behind the climate change scam! | Rodger |
| It’s time for we the people to “net-zero” our corporate government and its army of corporatists who masquerade as our democracy and rebuild a new system from the ground up that benefits we the people, and not the globalist corporate agenda. | neil |
| Yes. Stop penalising the one group of people who can help finance our way out of this horrendous debt Labour have put us in – our farming community | Carolyn |
| Absolutely! Net-zero should have been abandoned by the Coalition once they were elected to government. This scam has gone on for long enough! | Dianne |
| Economic growth should have always been the priority for the country. | Murray |
| Why is Luxon saying he will stick with Paris when other countries are bailing out. What is he afraid of? Why doesn’t he do the right thing for NZ? | Paul |
| NZ should never have signed up to the Paris Agreement. It was the National Party that did that. this is their opportunity to put things right! | Bryan |
| Growth and jobs should always have come first. Climate change is a fraud. | Nick |