Sustainable Finance: Let's keep the conversation broad

Paul Goldsmith. Photo / Michael Craig

We must play our part as a nation without causing too much damage to our economy, says
Paul Goldsmith.

National governments are well known for emphasising economic growth. This is simply in recognition of the fact that the economy is about people. It's about you, me, our families, our neighbourhoods.

To me, the point of a strong economy is to enable New Zealanders to do the most basic things in life well.

It improves our chances of finding satisfying and good paying work — so that we can look after ourselves and our families. The most fundamental task each of us have.

Work itself, in its countless varieties, brings the opportunity to make a contribution to our world and the people in it — whether we're providing someone with a new hip, a new app, or a cup of coffee with a smile.

And if we do well, we can afford to have some fun in our leisure time, and maybe if we have some energy left do something in the neighbourhood, on the barbecue for the school committee, or whatever. That, to me, is the good life to which we aspire.

As well as generating work and opportunities, good economic management and a strong economy enables the country to have better public services that improve our lives — quality education, access to world class healthcare, decent transport infrastructure so we can get home on time, the reassurance of superannuation when we're old.

And there are times in everyone's life when we need help; at certain times of their lives some people can't look after themselves and their families; the stronger our economy is, the more we can help.

So, in that sense, our core, long-term economic challenge is the same that it has always been — to maintain and improve our international competitiveness. So our small and remote country can continue to do well in a competitive world.

At the same time, of course, we recognise that money isn't everything.

New Zealanders are equally interested in preserving and enhancing what is special about this country — the quality of our environment, our social cohesion, our relatively high trust, low corruption traditions, our commitment to the rule of law, freedom and tolerance of different views, our sense of security — all these things are incredibly important and should never be taken for granted.

For all our imperfections and disappointments, we have much to be proud about in all these areas.

So we should, and we do, put a lot of effort to ensuring that our economic growth does not come at the expense of our core equities — whether they are natural capital, social capital, or indeed institutional capital.

That effort in the environmental space, for example, has come through regulation and through huge investment in science and conservation, but increasingly it is also driven by consumer demand. We haven't always got it right and there's much more to do.

In addition, we have the economic challenge of meeting our unfolding international commitments to address climate change. Our task is to play our part as a nation in making progress without causing too much damage to our economy and our living standards.

Sustainable finance, in the New Zealand context, therefore must be about engaging the financial system and capital markets in the task of acknowledging and funding solutions to the specific climate change challenge as well as the ongoing environmental and social imperatives, while never taking our eye off our long-standing task to improve our international competitiveness.

It's great to see initiatives, such as the Aotearoa Circle's Sustainable Finance Forum, where public-spirited men and women have put their minds to these challenges and are making practical suggestions for how we might progress.

I look forward to engaging with them in the months to come.

• Paul Goldsmith is National's finance spokesperson.

Read the Sustainable Finance Report here.