WWF-New Zealand media release - for immediate release

New Zealand stuck in reverse as world governments urged to shift gear towards clean energy future

As the latest round of UN climate talks draws to a close this week in Bonn, a new WWF report says that fast and scaled up support for innovative approaches to developing a low-carbon economy is both possible and essential.

Enabling the Transition – Climate Innovation Systems for a Low Carbon Future, released today, calls for governments to introduce stronger national legislation to enable clean energy markets to grow.

“The International Energy Agency has just reported record high emissions in 2010. WWF's new report on innovation shows that governments can create the fast lane to global deployment of clean technologies,” said Samantha Smith, leader of WWF’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative.

The report assesses nine economies – China, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the European Union. It shows a range of common conditions for moving fast towards a low carbon economy: they include strengthening domestic and international technology collaboration, establishing new low carbon markets, stimulating demand, and attracting private capital.

While the New Zealand situation was not studied in this report, WWF-New Zealand says it should serve as a wake-up call to our government about the international trend for recognising and responding to the opportunities of developing a low carbon economy.

“Every country and region has its own unique starting point and ability to foster climate entrepreneurship,” said Lee Barry, WWF New Zealand’s climate campaigner. “New Zealand is no exception. Compared with many other countries, we have a head start in low carbon development due to an abundance of renewable energy resources and available land. Yet these assets are currently going untapped as our government pursues 19th century fossil fuel industries such as dirty coal and oil exploration instead.”

New Zealand’s Ministry for the Environment recently responded to an enquiry from WWF that the Government will not be progressing a Low Carbon Development Plan, as agreed by all parties at last year’s UN climate meeting in Cancun.

“This report illustrates that while others - including developing nations – are forging ahead with creating the right conditions for transforming their economies, New Zealand is lagging behind.”

The report also highlights that making the transition to low carbon technologies will require finance from private sources and that public funds and carefully designed policies will be important for attracting investors. These policies should include re-directing the existing US$ 200-500 billion global fossil fuel subsidies into sustainable energy solutions. In the 2009 budget the New Zealand government granted NZ$20 million to fund seismic surveys to encourage increased oil and gas exploration.

“The WWF report should send a clear signal to all countries about the level of ambition for low carbon innovation,” said Ms. Barry. “With progress in Bonn sluggish at best – our report shows how governments could and should move into the fast lane with their domestic policies now. New Zealand must recognise the opportunities we may lose from being stuck in reverse.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:
Enabling the Transition – Climate Innovation Systems for a Low Carbon Future is a compilation report based on assessments commissioned by WWF from China, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, the European Union, the Netherlands and Sweden.
WWF defines a climate innovation as transformative non-fossil and non-nuclear products, services or systems that, given favorable conditions, will generate more than 20 million tons of annual CO2 reduction in ten years from now if applied at scale – see www.climatesolver.org for examples.

The on-going United Nations meeting in Bonn is preparing for the climate conference in South Africa at the end of 2011 (UNFCCC COP 17, 28 Nov to 9 Dec 2011). WWF says that progress and agreements should be reached in Bonn on a number of critical stepping stones, including public climate finance, all of which can then be successfully finalized in Durban, South Africa.

Download the report and assessments at http://www.climatesolver.org/source.php/1369543/110607%20Enabling%20the%20Transition.pdf

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