Among other things, this blog is a time machine.
It only lets you go backwards though.
See what was going on in the world at this or that date.
See what decisions were made, missed, avoided.
In today’s entry for posterity, we record the budget decisions made by little New Zealand in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.
For context, stupid amounts of money are being printed to get the country on its feet again.
Like everywhere.
Some think it’s a perfectly good time to reconstruct the economy with much more focus on the environment than before.
That “some” doesn’t exactly include the government.
“In announcing the 2020 Budget, which creates a $50 billion Covid-19 recovery and relief fund and pumps billions into health, infrastructure and wage subsidy extensions, Jacinda Ardern said, "There are few things that I think I will ever consider as being outside the bounds of possibility any more."
“One of those few things appears to be meaningful action on climate change.”
To be fair, there were a few good things in the budget, including:
“The biggest investment is $1.2 billion for rail, a third of which is earmarked for replacing the Interislander ferries. Alongside this, $56 million has been appropriated to improve insulation in 9,000 Kiwi homes - leaving 591,000 still under-insulated. Around $100 million will go to forestry and the Emissions Trading Scheme and another $34 million to New Zealand's participation in international research to reduce agricultural emissions. Lastly, $30 million will be invested in replacing coal boilers in schools, hospitals and other public buildings.”
$1.2 billion doesn’t sound too bad, right?
“Compare that to $5.3 billion for roads in the Government's January infrastructure spend, or its $400 million tourism industry bailout and $1 billion Air New Zealand bailout, neither with any sustainability strings attached.”
Hmmm…
In Europe, you can force airlines to swallow climate conditions on bailouts, because Europe has these things called “trains” in competition with planes.
New Zealand has these things called roads, plus three expensive “mainline” tourist trains plodding around like shiny dinosaurs at about fifty kilometres an hour, perfectly useless for nearly everyone except tourists, and expensive to boot!
What is encouraging though is that there’s no shortage of activists, academics and engaged citizens in New Zealand with excellent ideas for the future:
“In the weeks leading up to the Budget, climate activists and academics - and the Climate Change Commission - pushed for serious investment in climate solutions. Many offered possible policies, allowing us a glimpse at what a truly transformational Budget would look like.
“To begin with, it would still contain the environmental highlight of Budget 2020: $1.1 billion for conservation jobs, including pest control, uprooting wilding pines, planting native trees and cleaning up waterways.
“Then it would tackle emissions with vigour. The $56 million investment in the Labour-Greens Warmer Kiwi Homes project would be boosted to take care of the hundreds of thousands of houses that will still be under-insulated after Budget 2020's commitment.
"Oil Change International research has shown that energy efficiency projects like home insulation deliver more jobs for every government dollar spent, internationally, even than investment in renewable energies, which in turn gives more jobs per dollar of government spend than investment in fossil fuels," Oil Change International senior campaigner David Tong told Newsroom.
“Thousands of New Zealanders could be put to work mounting solar panels on state houses, schools, hospitals and other public buildings, allowing the country to fully decarbonise its electricity generation. Research and production of batteries to store excess energy for dry years when hydroelectricity plants produce less could employ hundreds more.
“The country's biggest polluter, agriculture, could be targeted for serious sustainable funding, through regenerative agriculture investment.
"We would love to see investment in moving from an emissions-intense, high-yield, low-value model of agriculture to a model of agriculture that regenerates nature, lowers emissions and provides better results for farmers' back pockets," Tong said.
“The Government could work harder to electrify private transport, New Zealand's second-biggest polluter. Alternately, it could adopt literally any meaningful transport emissions policy, given it currently has none.”
See?
All that’s missing is political will, including from the Left.
Come on New Zealand. Be a star!
[Cover photo: Sciadopitys]