Dishonest accounting: comments on the Climate Change Commission draft report, 2021

Abstract

I have serious concerns with parts of the draft report, and welcome this opportunity to lay those out and suggest how they might be addressed in the final report. Those relate to (1) the Commission’s acceptance and use of the gross-net accounting methodology which systematically obscures the true record of New Zealand’s emissions performance and the actual lack of ambition in targets set to date; (2) the Commission’s failure to engage with the operational detail of the very dysfunctional electricity market which stands as a roadblock to climate progress whereas it ought to be a key facilitator; and (3) the Commission’s reluctance to engage with the nuts and bolts of the Emissions Trading Scheme; and its failure even to canvass alternative price-based policy frameworks such as carbon taxes.