TL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā for paying subscribers in the last week included:
The Kaka’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer reported on how banks’ and insurers’ models of climate change’s financial impacts underplay massively the likely costs and risks of rises in temperatures of over two degrees, relative to the latest modeling of climate scientists and actual damages from recent weather events. Friday’s hoon above.
The Labour Government unveiled a plan to build a road tunnel and a rail tunnel under the Waitemata harbour over an indeterminate number of decades for a cost of about $45 billion, including plans to build the road tunnels first in a politically expedient way that prioritises drivers over emissions reduction and risks blowing the real costs out to over $65 billion once the cost of buying emissions credits is taken into account. Monday’s email.
The Government announced the fast-tracking of consents for solar and wind farms that could, in theory, produce 3.5 times as much as the Clyde Dam can generate, but consents worth twice that amount have been granted and not actually built in the last two decades because the state-controlled gentailers fear building extra capacity will dilute prices and profits. Tuesday’s email.
PM Chris Hipkins and Energy Minister Megan Woods staged an announcement by BlackRock of a $2 billion fund for renewable investments aimed at lifting Aotearoa’s renewable share of electricity generation from under 90% currently to 100% by 2030, but the ‘partnership’ involved no declared Government investments in the fund or promises to invest in any state-controlled assets, meaning it was a performative cross-promotional exercise designed to lead TV news bulletins, which it did. Woods and Hipkins acknowledged to my questions in a news conference that uncertainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter and the still-undecided issue of how to use hydro or other batteries to deal with our ‘dry year’ issue was holding back investment in the generation and transmission lines needed to achieve the 100% target, or convert our transport fleet and industrial coal boilers to electricity in a way that reduces our $20 billion-plus emissions credits liability. Friday’s hoon above and RNZ’s First Up
The Security Intelligence Service published its first threat assessment statement on Friday, taking the unprecedented step of naming China, Russia and Iran as engaging in espionage and foreign interference against New Zealand.
What we talked about on ‘The Hoon’ on Friday night
In this week’s podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers at 5pm on Friday night:
5.00 pm - 5.25 pm - Bernard and Peter Bale opened the show with The Kākā’s new correspondent Cathrine Dyer with a discussion about Aotearoa’s banks and insurers were underestimating the risks and damage of climate change of over 2 degrees celsius.
5.25 pm - 5.35 pm - BCG Principal Richard Hobbs spoke about his recent paper on supercharging New Zealand’s transition to net zero emissions, and debated with Cathrine, Bernard and Peter about the idea of degrowth.
5.35 - 5.50 pm - Stuff Pou Tiakia Matua Carmen Parahi talked with Bernard and Peter about a hui this week in Auckland about the media and Te Ao Maori.
5.50 - 6.05 pm - Bernard, Peter and Carmen wraped the show with a discussion of the week in politics with columnist for The Post, Josie Pagani, including her latest column on the need for politicians to come up big ideas.
The Hoon’s podcast version above was produced by Simon Josey. Unfortunately,
was unable to make it on the show this week, contrary to the invitation to join the hoon. He was talking with diplomats.This is a sampler for all free subscribers. Thanks to the support of paying subscribers here, I’m able to spread the work from my public interest journalism here about housing affordability, climate change and poverty reduction around in other public venues. I’d love you to join the community supporting and contributing to this work with your ideas, feedback and comments.
Chart of the week
What should be on the front pages of all today’s papers
Map of the week
Other places I’ve appeared this week
My podcast for The Spinoff this week: Steaming to 100% renewable
This week in my weekly podcast via The Spinoff, When The Facts Change, I spoke with GEOBIND co-founder Alice Hosted about how Aotearoa could help solve its housing cost and carbon problems by using hempcrete walls. We discussed the pros and cons of using hemp in building construction, and the current logistical frameworks that restrict its use.
I talked about the BlackRock fund announcement on RNZ’s First Up programme with Nathan Rarere on Wednesday morning.
Ka kite ano
Bernard
The Hoon around the week to Aug 12