Summary of the Climate Change Commission's emissions budgets and policy '2021 Draft Advice for Consultation'

He Pou a Rangi/Climate Change Commission's report 2021 Draft Advice in graphics.

I mentioned the He Pou a Rangi/Climate Change Commission's report 2021 Draft Advice for Consultation" published on 31 January 2021 to my millenial colleague.

She asked if it has infographics?

Yes it does and hopefully they can help assist in providing a summary without anyone having to read either the 188 pages of the advice document or the hundreds of pages of the supporting evidence chapters.

First thing, let's get the citation right. "2021 Draft Advice for Consultation", He Pou a Rangi/Climate Change Commission, 31 January 2021.

It is a draft for public consultation until 14 March 2021. The report recommends three 5-year greenhouse gas emissions budgets to 2035 (and relevant policy) to the Government. To be finalised after submissions by 31 May 2021. The Government has to respond to it by 31 December 2021. So it will take all year.

The report adopts the Zero Carbon Act's approach of having a separate target for biogenic methane. Which is basically all of New Zealand's emissions from pastoral agriculture.

For the 'long-lived' gases (excluding methane from agriculture and waste), they recommend three 5-year emissions budgets out to 2035 and lots of policies to achieve them. The budgets mean a 26% decline in gross gases (excluding methane) and a decline of 36% in net gases (excluding methane) by 2035 from 2018. The ten percent difference being offset by exotic forestry carbon sequestration.

For 'short-lived' gases (agricultural methane plus waste methane), they recommend three separate 5-year emissions budgets to 2035. These represent less ambitious reductions in emissions - minus 16% to 2035 from the 2018 baseline

The summary 5-year budgets are to put Aotearoa on a path to 'net zero carbon' emissions by 2050. Absolute carbon emissions in 2050 will be millions of tonnes but they will be 'offset' to 'net zero' by forests storing carbon. There will be another round of three 5-year budgets for 2035 to 2050 to sort out the exact trajectory.

The forecast emissions pathways show a major decrease in transport emissions, modest decreases in agriculture and industry emissions, and major increases in carbon stored in forests.

The Commission have two emissions 'scenarios' to 2050; optimistic 'tailwind' and pessimistic 'headwind'. Both lead to net zero carbon by 2050.

For electricity generation, coal and oil have to be gone by 2030, gas is to be minimised, and wind generation increased a lot.

For food processing energy, coal is gone by 2035, diesel is squeezed, gas is halved and electricity and biomass generation are increased a lot.

For the dairy sector, methane emissions decrease marginally, milk fat production is stable, stock numbers drop very slightly through efficiency gains for each unit of dry feed. But - the Commission doesn't seem to know if dairying should be in the emissions trading scheme. Their recommendation to the Government is "Review regulatory regimes". This is very vague. A kick-for-touch response.

The whole point of having the Commission as an independent Crown agency is that it can make "free and frank" recommendations about applying politically sensitive policies such as carbon pricing to politically sensitive sectors such as the dairy industry. I find this quite disappointing.

For sheep and beef, methane decreases, meat production increases slightly, stock numbers drop through efficiency gains. But, again, the Commission doesn't seem to know if sheep and beef should be in the emissions trading scheme. They say "Review regulatory regimes". This is again a bit disappointing and a vague kick-for-touch.

Finally, James Shaw had asked the Commission how should Aotearoa's 2030 emission reduction target under the Paris Agreement work?

It's 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. The Commission says the target could be more stringent than the 5-year emissions budgets because credible international carbon credits could be imported. 'Credible' credits, they have to say that to distinguish them from the fake and fraudulent Russian and Ukrainian credits imported from 2013 as noted by the Morgan Foundation.

At the moment, there is no operative international carbon market. It also seems unlikely to happen under the Paris Agreement. The 'net zero by 2050' target incentivises countries to hold on to domestic carbon removals for offsetting their most emission intensive sectors. Any international sales (such as to Aotearoa) would only happen once domestic demand is met. A reliable credible supply of credits seems either unlikely to eventuate or alternatively be extremely expensive.