In her opening statement to Parliament on February 13, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark highlighted sustainability as a major issue for her government. She echoed British economist and climate change expert Sir Nicholas Stern’s views that inaction would be costly.

“Without a commitment to greater sustainability in our resource use and way of life, we risk not only damaging our own environment, but also exposing our economy to significant risk,” Clark said.

The New Zealand Government has released several key policy documents for consultation regarding these issues.

Among these are the ‘Draft New Zealand Energy Strategy to 2050’ and ‘Transitional Measures’. Consultation on both these documents ended last week.

The Transitional Measures paper discusses options to move towards low emissions electricity and stationary energy supply and to facilitate a transition to greenhouse gas pricing in the future. It proposes several policy options for addressing carbon change and sustainability issues. These include:

• Emissions trading;

• A carbon dioxide charge;

• Renewable options;

• Incentives for investing in renewables;

• Project-based measures;

• Regulatory measures; and

• Voluntary measures.

With consultation closing on these documents, the industry and the public have now had their opportunity to voice their views on the issues and options.

The important decisions now lie with the New Zealand Government. While the Government has actively supported policies to address climate change, it is yet to be seen how it will address these issues in practice.

Bryan Gundersen is a partner in the Energy and Resources and Climate Change teams at Kensington Swan. Fleur Knowsley is an associate in the Energy and Resources and Climate Change teams at Kensington Swan.