The Environment Committee of New Zealand’s Parliament called for public submissions on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The purpose of the Bill is to establish a framework which New Zealand can use to develop clear, stable climate change policies in accord with the Paris Agreement.  Chartered Accountants ANZ prepared and lodged its submission to the Bill on 16 July 2019. 

We connected and received feedback from a wide range of our members, including via an online member survey and from our Rural Advisory Committee, who have helped to shape our response to the Bill.

The key points of our submission:

• We support the establishment of a long-term durable framework for responding to climate change to encourage the transition to a low-emission economy to be considered as a part of the broader vision for New Zealand in 2050
• The framework should be fair and equitable, with contributions by sector taking into account the effect of emitters of that sector. All sectors should be provided with the same tools to offset emission
• We support biological emissions and fossil fuel emissions being treated separately in the legislation and setting a target of net zero by 2050 (other than for biogenic methane)
• We suggest consideration be given to setting a gross zero target for fossil fuel emissions by 2050, as recommended by PCE 
• We support setting a net target for biogenic methane but recommend further consideration is given to the target level and date before it is legislated
• We support the functions of the Climate Change Commission. However, we recommend additional provisions and resources to empower the Commission to self-initiate research on climate change related matters and to promote awareness of climate change and related matters
• We recommend simplifying the planning framework by subsuming the Emissions Budgets and Emissions Reductions Plans into a wider National Adaption Plan. This would make the framework more coherent and increase certainty.