Govt warned of mounting climate liability

The new Government is on track … to fail to meet both its Zero Carbon Act and Paris commitments. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:

1. The Government has received official advice that its emissions-increasing policies mean Aotearoa is likely to fail to meet both its Zero Carbon Act and Paris commitments, which is rapidly increasing the Crown’s multi-billion-dollar liability for buying emissions credits overseas by 2030, given it hasn’t started;

2. Chris Bishop’s ‘Going For Housing Growth’ policy is increasingly being sabotaged by Simeon Brown’s policy of building new motorways rather than funding trains, buses and ferries, as seen in a new example where 3,000 new homes in Auckland are set to be delayed for a decade because an expanded ferry service is deemed by NZTA as ‘unaffordable’ because all the money has been allocated to RONS;

3. In solutions news, the rest of the world is forging ahead with policies to subsidise and encourage take-up of electric bikes and scooters, which Aotearoa’s policymakers and voters could learn from in a useful interactive global map;

4. In my chart of the day, NASA recorded three consecutive days of record-high global temperatures, despite El Nino ending months ago;

5. In my quote of the day, Chloe Swarbrick challenges Christopher Luxon in Parliamentary Question Time on tax cuts and the connection between abuse in care and poverty; and,

6. In my climate graphic of the day, the Climate Commission has advised most of Aotearoa emissions reductions forecast for the next decade are at serious risk of not happening because of policy slippage.

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Top Six Things to note on Wednesday, July 31:

1. Govt told it’s failing on climate & credits debt is growing