Government releases "deficient" petroleum strategy - Greenpeace
Tuesday, 27th August: The Government has today released a draft 10-year Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy which
will be used to inform a review of the Crown Minerals Act 1991.
Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner, Amanda Larsson, has reacted with disappointment, saying that the strategy is
utterly inadequate given the climate crisis playing out around the world.
"We’re in the middle of a climate emergency. The Amazon and the Arctic are on fire and MBIE is effectively throwing
petroleum into the flames with this status quo strategy," she says.
"Burning oil, gas and coal is the major driver of climate change. The latest science says we already have more oil and
gas in productive fields than we can afford to burn.
"Instead of providing a pathway for New Zealand to urgently wind down extraction of these polluting fuels, the strategy
suggests that oil and gas production could continue here for up to 50+ years."
Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an alarming report, which called on governments to
halve global carbon emissions by 2030 and bring them to net zero in the next 30 years.
"An appropriate response to the climate emergency would include a commitment to immediately end new fossil fuel
exploration on land and at sea, alongside a timeline for rapidly winding down the coal, oil and gas industries," says
Larsson.
Last year, the Government announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration permits in response to a decade of
public pressure. However, a decision was made not to revoke permits released before the ban.
One of those permit holders, Austrian oil company OMV, will begin exploratory oil and gas drilling off the coasts of
Taranaki and Dunedin this summer. It’s the first time exploratory drilling has taken place in New Zealand in more than
five years.
"OMV will be drilling in previously untouched areas of ocean which are home to threatened and endangered marine
wildlife. If OMV find new oil and gas this summer, it will be a disaster for the climate," says Larsson.
The Draft Minerals and Petroleum Resource Strategy is open for public consultation until 20 September.
ENDS