Submission on Crown Minerals Amendment Bill
Kapuni Natural Gas Production Plant, Taranaki 1971. Archives NZ, Flickr.
At some point soon humans must stop extracting fossil fuels from the ground or risk very large increases in global average temperature.
When New Zealand decides to stop extracting fossil fuels, and how it does so, is a political choice that will signal our commitment to limiting global warming.
In his submission on the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill, the Commissioner has asked Members of Parliament to carefully weigh the implications of removing the ban on new oil and gas exploration by reading a note prepared by PCE on this topic in 2020.
He notes that it is a nuanced issue, and care was taken to ensure that the findings of the note reflected that nuance.
Four working days was an extremely short timeframe for consultation on this bill, meaning that PCE was not able to provide its usual detailed and considered analysis. However, in this submission, the Commissioner lays out some important considerations:
- New Zealand’s policy has always been that all countries should do what they can to reduce emissions. MPs must now decide whether removing the ban is consistent with doing that.
- New Zealand is party to many international climate change and trade agreements committing us to reduce global gross emissions of carbon dioxide to zero. Advice shows that reversing the ban risks our international reputation and relationships.
- The advice accompanying the bill does not provide a sufficiently thorough analysis of costs and benefits from repealing the ban (but nor was the original ban accompanied by such analysis).
- Changing the purpose of the Act from “managing” to “promoting” is in essence promoting more environmental damage.
The Commissioner also recommends that proposed rules around decommissioning must be tightened up to ensure that the financial securities from mining companies are sufficient to pay for any environmental clean-up costs, otherwise taxpayers will be burdened with those costs.