Resilient local economies
The National Party won the 2023 New Zealand general election but they are actually in for a shock; a win is a poisoned chalice. That means it appears to be a reward but in reality is harmful. No matter what a government does, petrol and diesel prices will rise. And this will mean inflation persists.
Continue reading “Oil depletion means an election win is a poisoned chalice”
Several people have suggested we describe how Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) would work in various cases.
This article argues that the ETS won’t work and the time has come to explore other methods of reducing emissions, like Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) instead.
The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme is a tool to help the country meet its domestic and international climate change targets. Our ETS has been in operation since 2008. The theory is that if you make polluters pay for their right to emit greenhouse gases and that price rises, firms will change their practices and reduce their emissions.
Fifteen years and many twists and turns later it looks as though several key proponents are finally admitting it may not work. Continue reading “Isn’t it time to admit the Emissions Trading Scheme will never work?”
Mining professor Simon Michaux has done a mammoth study on electrifying the global transport sector. He worked out how many cars, trucks, ships there were and how far they travel. Since most are still ICE(internal combustion engines) vehicles he figured a great many things from there. Among his calculations were:
Continue reading “We need 700 times as much lithium as we are currently mining to electrify global transport”
Often during the last twenty years, climate activists have had high hopes that humanity will avert a climate catastrophe. Continue reading “Climate catastrophe or inevitable after COP26?”
When New Zealand hydroelectric power stations run low, we beef up electricity generation with another coal-fired unit in Huntly. But each time, environmentalists are shocked because it isn’t using renewables. How is New Zealand going to meet its renewable targets now, they ask.
Continue reading “Renewables – in a growing economy it may be impossible to get there”
OK here is my mea culpa on climate action. I am guilty.
Yes, even though I have read a lot about climate change and the urgency of effective action and have been duly alarmed, even though I am active in climate groups, even though I submitted to the Climate Commission, I still lapse. Continue reading “Government, you are going to have to make me reduce my emissions”
I am a recent convert to Tradable Energy Quotas (TEQs) invented by the late David Fleming in UK in 1996 for effective climate action. See Continue reading “Why are TEQs better than Fee and Dividend or Cap and Trade?”
Sustainability and money Deirdre Kent Nov 2020
A few months ago I gave this presentation to a climate change group. Hope you enjoy it. Well it’s not actually enjoyable to know that energy use and economic growth are so closely linked. As Naomi Klein said, “The economy is at war with the climate”. We are going to need all our collective intelligence to downshift without chaos. Can we manage an energy descent without it being haphazard and dangerous socially? Continue reading “Sustainability and Money”