Multi-level governance and climate change mitigation in New Zealand: lost opportunities

Abstract

The inherently global nature of climate change has led to a focus on international negotiations and the development of national commitments as dominant mitigation tools. However, there is a growing awareness that ultimate success depends upon involving subnational government, particularly cities, which are uniquely placed to address climate change in terms of both policy development and implementation of mitigation actions. In recent years the theory of multi-level governance has been used to analyse governments' roles as effective climate actors. This article uses this theory to examine legal and policy developments in New Zealand that have a direct influence on the ability of local government to contribute to climate change mitigation. New Zealand's former leadership in this area has been progressively eroded since 2004. As a result, local government is left with limited direct capacity to contribute to mitigation. Given the failure of New Zealand's national mitigation policies, the disempowerment of local government is an additional impediment to achieving emission reductions. While New Zealand may not be unique in its current lack of support for local government (and their communities), what is novel is the co-ordinated and deliberate trend away from multi-level governance.

Policy relevance

There is a growing awareness of the interdependence between international climate change obligations, national commitments and the role of sub-national government, cities in particular. States are being encouraged to empower subnational government to take a complementary role in climate change mitigation policy and action. This article demonstrates that the paradoxical trend in New Zealand is part of a co-ordinated policy approach favouring increased centralization and economic development over a commitment to sustainability. This deliberate disempowerment of local government leaves its most populous city with an aspirational action plan it will find difficult to deliver on. It also compounds New Zealand's current failure to undertake strong climate change mitigation action.

Keywords:

• Multi-level governance
• climate change mitigation
• subnational government
• sustainability
• climate policy and law

Notes

1 For example, Cities Day is a dialogue between Mayors and Ministers on how cities can contribute to global efforts on scaling up climate actions and was held as part of the UN Warsaw Climate Conference (COP 19/CMP9) as a joint initiative of the COP Presidency, the UNFCCC Secretariat, the City of Warsaw and the ICLEI (http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/un-officials-recognize-cities-role-in-addressing-climate-change/).

2 Calls for a National Policy Statement on climate change began in 1994 but were rejected by central government. See Taylor (1996); Proposed Taranaki Power Station – Air Discharge Effects: Report of the Board of Inquiry (February 1995), para 11.23 and 11.24; Bosselmann et al. (2002).

3 For example, under the previous legislative regime the Stratford Power Station decision required climate change mitigation measures as a condition of resource consent (Proposed Taranaki Power Station – Air Discharge Effects: Report of the Board of Inquiry (February 1995)).

4 There are strategies on energy, housing and transport that address emission reduction initiatives. However, these are either non-statutory and of limited influence (e.g., New Zealand Energy Strategy 2011–2021 incorporating an energy efficiency and conservation strategy) or have little to say about emissions reductions (various Government Policy Statements on land transport funding), and in addition ‘appear somewhat piecemeal and overall are not yet strongly co-ordinated or coherent with the ETS’ (Macey, 2014, p. 54).

5 However, a Crown Law opinion (Crown Law, 2012) considered that local government decisions would be no more amenable to judicial review than prior to the amendments (at p. 2).

6 The 2010 United Nations Cancun Agreements included recognition of a need to reduce emissions to keep global average temperature rise below 2°C (UNFCCC, 2010).

7 Note these are very similar to non-binding national emissions reductions targets contained in the Minister for the Environment's Position Paper Gazetting New Zealand's 2050 Emissions Target (MfE, 2011a).

8 But see Auckland Council's refusal to grant consent for three proposed special housing areas due to infrastructure concerns (Davison, 2015), after 87 being approved.