According to the scientific journal Nature, we must keep the majority of known coal, oil and gas reserves in the ground. That’s if we want to stabilise to 2 degrees Celsius above current temperatures. Photo: Unknown
Having a government that pushes investment in fossil fuels shows that New Zealand’s clean green image is “fake”, says a climate change campaigner.
Niahm O’Flynn, climate campaign group 350 Aotearoa’s national coordinator, says the plans to open up yet more areas for prospecting for new oil and gas reserves is sending the wrong message.
“As soon as the world realises that New Zealand would rather push dirty fossil fuels, which are a sunset industry that we’re going to have to be moving away from anyway, they’re not going to have any interest in products with our fake ‘clean, green’ image.”
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As part of a global campaign, Prince Charles, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are all clamouring for global divestment from fossil fuels, citing ethical reasons.
The divestment campaign now involves more than hundreds of religious institutions, cities, universities and foundations scrapping fossil fuel investments, in what has become the largest divestment campaign since the anti-Apartheid divestment movement in the late ‘80s.
More recently, the Dunedin City Council revealed that it would class fossil fuels as an unethical investment, along with tobacco, pornography, munitions and gambling. It joins the Guardian Media Group, which will clear fossil fuel investments from its $1.67 billion NZ investment fund, as will the Rockefellers (who made their squillions from oil), announcing last year they would pull investments totalling more than $66 billion NZ from fossil fuels.
According to the scientific journal Nature, we must keep the majority of known coal, oil and gas reserves in the ground if we want to stabilise to 2 degrees Celsius above current temperatures, something that some scientists are calling a “suicide pact” and “a prescription for long-term disaster.
In New Zealand, says O’Flynn, we’re making the big oil and gas companies feel welcome; subsidising the industry to the tune of $46 million annually. This includes tax breaks and support for exploration data and research (despite our being involved in international groups like the Friends of the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform).
O’Flynn insists it’s time for us to move away from non-renewables: “I think at this stage... we are tied into a fossil-fuel based economy.
“It’s about using the resources that we do have to make a very quick and just transition away from them. We need to start investing in renewable industries and start making sure that we have the power there that is reliable.”
Yet, the government in New Zealand is on a different track. In 2009, the National Government launched the Petroleum Action Plan, with the aim of reviewing and amending petroleum-related legislation, funding geo-seismic data collection and actively positioning itself as “pro-active and pro-development” for oil and gas. In April, the Government announced seven new areas, three onshore and four offshore, for petroleum exploration, with the hope that these with yield significant energy reserves.
Fossil fuels are a big business, says Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges.
“The economic benefits are very clear and they are there in terms of skilling people, high paying jobs, infrastructure and then also the return to the crown,” Bridges tells The Wireless.
As an example, Taranaki, where the first prospecting attempts began in 1865, has a large oil and gas sector which accounts for close to 90 per cent of the industry’s employment across the country, and contributes $2.5 billion annually in GDP.
O’Flynn said forecasting returns from the oil and gas industry is difficult, as the Government has not done any economic risk analysis or cost-benefit analysis of oil exploration.
Bridges insists the risk is small. “I think you could always have more analysis, more studies and they could use all sorts of modelling and risk scenarios... The risks are actually incredibly small, I think people talk about 0.02 per cent likelihoods.”
“There are incredibly good regulatory regimes in place, whether its in terms of the marine issues, health and safety issues that do deal with these things and actually, if anything, make sure that the risk is not only small, but it’s almost negligible.”
It’s a much more complex issue than saying fossil fuels bad everything else good. Fossil fuels aren’t created equally.
O’Flynn said forecasting returns from the oil and gas industry was difficult, and he claimed the Government had not taken into account potential impacts on our fisheries and aquaculture industry, or the impact on they country’s clean, green image. Fisheries and aquaculture exports of which are worth nearly $1.5 billion annually and Greenpeace says 70 per cent of exports (worth about $36.7 billion annually) rely on the country’s environmentally-friendly reputation.
Bridges said there’s no denying that New Zealand needs to continue to invest in non-renewables to tide it over while making strides towards a renewables-powered future.
“It’s a much more complex issue than saying fossil fuels bad everything else good. Fossil fuels aren’t created equally.”
Bridges said a significant gas find could help large, developing economies to move away from dirtier fuels like coal, which create more carbon emissions than other types of fuel when burned. “It would almost certainly be displacing coal, which would be a net benefit in terms of climate change to those countries.”
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