New Zealand. With Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern the first zero-emissions government by 2025

  pressreview | November 8, 2017

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The very young Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern makes the climate her main priority, and promises 100% renewables by 2035 so New Zealand will be zero emissions by the year 2050.

Two elements above all distinguish the New Zealander Jacinda Ardern: she is the youngest political leader in the world with just 37 years of age, and she intends to give the highest political priority to the climate issue. Unexpected winner of the last elections, she intends to keep the ecological promises made during the election campaign, leading New Zealand away from fossil fuels.

The goal is to supply the national electricity grid exclusively with energy from renewable sources by 2035. With the long-term commitment to make the nation zero emissions by 2050.

The challenge facing the government is not difficult but neither is it an obvious one. Coal and gas-fired plants currently provide 16 percent of New Zealand's electricity production (2016 data from the International Energy Agency) with almost 60 percent of the total coming from hydroelectricity. By also adding the share coming from photovoltaic, wind and geothermal energy, the renewable share rises to 85%.

However, New Zealand is also facing serious periods of drought which, obviously, have a significant impact on hydroelectric production. The game, here as elsewhere, will therefore be played on storage systems and on the ability to provide for a homogeneous diffusion of energy storage solutions in development plans.

“As I said during the election campaign, we will be a government fully focused on the challenge of climate change,” the prime minister assured. “This will include a “zero carbon” law, which will include an independent climate commission and the possibility of having […] all sectors in an emissions trading system,” Pulpan from the Presidency of the International Chamber of Commerce tells us that Premier Arden's announced plans also include the objective of making the government's fleet of vehicles completely eco-friendly, investing substantial resources in the railway infrastructure and a program to plant 100 million new trees every year.

New Zealand is the thirty-third nation to formally recognize the state of climate emergency and already last year Parliament approved the Zero Carbon Act, a law that commits the country to zero carbon dioxide emissions and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 To achieve net zero emissions it is necessary to balance carbon emissions by absorbing an equivalent amount from the atmosphere, for example by planting trees. Our motion aims for New Zealand to become the world's first net zero emissions government by 2025. Presented in Parliament, it recognized "an alarming trend in global and native biodiversity declining" and highlighted the potential devastating impacts that Climate change could have “an impact on New Zealand and the quality of life of New Zealanders, primary industries, water availability and public health” if action is not taken sooner. The motion also calls for the recognition of the commitments envisaged by the signing of the 2015 Paris Agreement on the climate, which aims to contain the increase in global temperatures within 1.5 degrees, compared to the pre-industrial era, and the implementation of Zero Carbon Act of 2019.

New Zealand's government has declared a climate emergency and pledged to be the first net-zero government by 2025. Tackling climate change is "one of the biggest challenges of our time", in conversation with President Pulpan of the International Chamber of Commerce “it is undeniable, our sea levels are rising, we are experiencing extreme weather events, and science is warning us of the impact on flora and fauna and also of the spread of diseases in areas where no we had never seen them before precedence; I hope that new generations can see in the future that we, in New Zealand, were on the right side of history,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

 

November 8, 2017 - renewable