Although Climate Minister Simon Watts stressed the world must triple renewable power, it took his Government a few days longer than others to commit to that goal.
New Zealand is now one of more than 120 countries to pledge to treble green energy – a necessary milestone to limit Earth’s heating.
But the newly signed protocol may not require the Government to take further action, beyond anticipated efforts to boost zero-carbon electricity.
On the third day of the COP28 climate conference, 118 countries including Australia, the EU and the US announced their support. The pact also aims to double energy efficiency by the same date.
According to an announcement, New Zealand is one of five latecomers to have signed up by the summit’s seventh day.
Watts’ office has been contacted about the pledge. The new minister is set to arrive in Dubai on Thursday.
Watts told Stuff in an interview last week how important the tripling milestone would be. Energy experts have concluded renewable energy must treble, and energy efficiency must double to give the world a decent shot at limiting global heating to 1.5C.
DAVID UNWIN/Stuff
After a long pause, generators have opened new and large wind farms across the country recently.
But when the announcement was first made, New Zealand was absent from the list.
The government did not make a decision on whether to join the pledge until after it was formally launched.
The National-led Government intended to streamline consenting rules, which it said could incentivise renewable electricity to double – although that’s by 2050, two decades after the 2030 goalpost in the international alliance.
Campaigner David Tong, of Oil Change International, said with so many of the countries’ diplomatic allies signing up, New Zealand’s absence on the initial list was “conspicuous”. He hoped the delay was “due to the incredibly short time between the formation of the new government and the start of these negotiations”.
Even a late sign-up is important, he said. “What our minister and diplomats do and don’t do in the climate negotiations will be seen by major diplomatic and trading partners.”
Because the tripling goal is a global one, the government could rely on business-as-usual policies to boost renewable energy.
According to Climate Change Commission estimates, the country needed to build the equivalent of 13 new large wind farms between 2021 and 2035 to meet its first three domestic goals. That’s roughly a tripling of wind energy – rather than a tripling of overall renewable electricity.
However, Tong said, a faster roll-out of geothermal, wind and solar could allow more cars, homes, buildings and factories to switch to green energy. “Further accelerating renewable electricity deployment and cutting more climate pollution at home would therefore mean that we would have to spend less on overseas credits to meet our promises.”
Power plays
Ahead of the event, COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber put his weight behind a global agreement to triple renewable energy and double efficiency.
Interestingly, while China backed the idea of tripling renewable energy in a joint statement with the US last month, it did not sign up to the COP28 pact. India didn’t join either.
Alone, renewable and energy efficiency expansion are insufficient to achieve 1.5C: the world must also quickly plug methane leaks, invest in electricity transmission and stop searching for new oil and gas, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
At the summit, 50 oil and gas giants vowed to plug pipeline leaks by 2030 – which would reduce the methane released to the atmosphere, though it would not address the emissions that would be produced from the extracted oil and gas.
In addition, major negotiating blocs including Pacific nations are fighting at COP28 for a global agreement to phase out fossil fuels, but the president has not backed the move.
Peter Dejong/AP
Comments by COP28 president Sultan al-Jaber (centre) sparked controversy during the summit.
On the fourth day of the summit, the Guardian reported that Al Jaber had claimed: “There is no science out there… that says that the phase out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5” – which is out of alignment with the IEA’s roadmap and world-leading research from climate science body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The president’s statement was made at a public event in the run-up to COP28, and shocked activists and world leaders.
Al Jaber – who is also the head of the UAE’s state-owned oil company – appeared with IPCC chair Jim Skea at a news conference to diffuse the controversy. Skea said the COP28 president had been briefed on climate science and “I think he fully understood it”.
