15 May 2007
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IPENZ Reality Check for Plan to Curb CO2 Emissions

While the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) is pleased to see both major political parties committing to global management of risk in respect of climate change, its Chief Executive Dr Andrew Cleland says that a reality check is necessary.

“What’s not being said here is how we will cut carbon emissions. New Zealanders should know how hard cutting back will be. The Kyoto Protocol is only a gentle first step. Even the very best world practice has only managed to stabilise net energy use per person – let alone reduce it. Yet there is brave talk of significant cuts.

Travel and demands for overseas goods pushes up transport demand. This is growing annually and best practice in this area will only slightly retard that growth. Meanwhile electricity use per person continues to rise, and will continue to do so if our economy prospers.

We need a national commitment to making minimum life cycle cost, energy-efficient decisions on behalf of New Zealanders. This will mean tough approaches to minimum standards, so that we immediately stop bringing in energy users that are not best practice such as imported cars or appliances. We also need to manage our building stock more purposefully – seeing at least part of the huge capital gains of recent years returned to efficiency improvements would help.

The public needs to know that demands are very hard to curtail, let alone cut, in a prospering economy without fundamental change to the way we think and act on energy issues”.

IPENZ has advocated for the implementation of minimum standards and other measures since mid-2006 when it published Engineering a National Energy Strategy; available at http://www.ipenz.org.nz/IPENZ/Media_Comm/Additional_publications.cfm

ENDS

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