John MacDonald: James Shaw is toast and his emissions plan a dog's breakfast

OPINION:

If you haven't read the Government's Emissions Reduction Plan, don't panic. Because I've done a summary for you: it's a dog's breakfast.

It's the first of its kind here in New Zealand. The purpose of it is to set out the targets that need to be achieved for us to have net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Which doesn't mean no emissions at all - it means zero emissions once the emissions trading scheme is factored in. Buying carbon credits from overseas. So net zero.

I was in contact last night with someone who had a minor involvement in putting the plan together and they said one of the problems is that there have been too many cooks in the kitchen. Every Tom, Dick and Harry had to have their five cents worth.

Treasury was involved, of course, and what that's meant is economics - as always - has trumped the environment when push comes to shove. And I reckon, as a result of that, we will see James Shaw getting the shove too from his Green Party colleagues.

I think he is toast as far as co-leadership of the Green Party is concerned. Because the rabid greenies within the party will be very dark on James Shaw after yesterday.

They were already getting dark on him before yesterday and I think this emissions plan will be the final straw, especially when it comes to agriculture getting what appears to be a "get out of jail card" from the Government.

Economics has won the day over the environment.

And so instead of targeting the farmers, the Government is targeting motorists. And with more than 50 per cent of emissions in Christchurch coming from transport, there could be far-reaching implications for us here in Canterbury.

Essentially, the Government wants more of us using electric vehicles and more of us using public transport and riding bikes. But how realistic is that here in Canterbury?

The Government also wants all public transport buses to be zero emission by 2035 - with only zero-emission buses allowed to be added to the country bus fleet from 2025.

The big thing missing yesterday was any announcement about ongoing subsidies for public transport. No commitment in the plan to continue the half-price public transport fares that have been running for a while.

But like so many of these types of plans, this one's short on detail - although money appears to have already been allocated to help low and middle-income earners dump the petrol guzzlers and get into electric vehicles.

The question, though, is - when it comes down to it, are we really prepared to put climate change ahead of convenience? I don't think we are.

I've got to be honest with you and say that I'm a hypocrite when it comes to climate change.

Yes, I believe the scientists who say climate change is a thing. I'm not in any way, shape or form a climate change denier.

But what did I do yesterday afternoon when I went home from work? I boiled the jug and settled in to have a read through the Emissions Reduction Plan.

But before I got too comfortable, I put a couple of logs on the log burner. A dirty, smoky log burner. Hypocrite.

And to get home, I'd ridden my old 1968 two-stroke Vespa.

Yes, I'm a believer when it comes to climate change. But has that been enough to stop me lighting the log burner and it hasn't been enough to stop me blowing blue smoke into the atmosphere everyday on the Vespa? Of course it hasn't.

And that's why the Government is going to have a real uphill battle on its hands when it comes to reducing emissions.

Because people will always prioritise convenience over climate change. Always. That's just how it is.

I've heard a lot of people say since the plan came out yesterday that there's a lot of carrot but not enough stick.

For example, there are a couple of transport engineers in the news today saying Christchurch is a city of vehicle commuters and just getting more of us driving electric vehicles isn't going to be enough.

They say we need to reduce the amount of driving we do full-stop. Alex Wilke and Glen Koorey are their names - they're from an outfit called ViaStrada.

And they're saying that Christchurch has such a huge amount of car parking in the central city that people are actually encouraged to drive their cars. There's plenty of car parking and it's pretty cheap - that's what they're saying anyway.

But it highlights the challenge here in Canterbury when it comes to reducing vehicle emissions.

We love to drive everywhere here in Canterbury, and I don't think this dog's breakfast of an Emissions Reduction Plan will change that.