Lack of detail is very concerning

Wellington 13 October 2021: The Motor Trade Association (MTA) today acknowledged the release by Minister Shaw of the Government's Emission Reduction consultation document as an important step to achieving New Zealand's climate change goals. But more detail is needed.

Craig Pomare, MTA Chief Executive said, “MTA and our members support the Government’s climate change goals. And within the document we particularly welcome the Government's recognition that we need a scrappage scheme to make sure all New Zealanders can benefit from the move to low emission vehicles. We are pleased the Government listened to our submissions and we look forward to working with them on the details of the scheme."

"We are also pleased to see the introduction of a sustainable biofuels mandate to reduce emissions from existing vehicles. In our opinion, a significant omission in the work of the Climate Change Commission was that it did not address the removal of old polluting vehicles, or emissions from the existing fleet."

MTA is, however, very concerned that the consultation document is devoid of detail, and that the industry and public are being invited by the Minister to join yet another round of consultation and discussion.

Pomare said, "In the past twelve months we have made submissions to the Climate Change Commission, the Ministry of Transport's Future Pathways document and multiple other consultations on the subject. It's about time the 'rubber met the road' and we got into the detail of how we are going to make it happen."

For example, the document makes broad statements about behaviour change,

"We will invest in information and education to support and encourage people and businesses to change their behaviour, while recognising that the biggest barrier is often a lack of good transport options. We will work across sectors to ensure consistent messages and actions"

and training,

"We will signal what the transport workforce might look like, and work with industries to plan for transitions"

but gives no detail.

Pomare says "Overall, the big risk remains, that vehicle transport will become more expensive, as a result New Zealanders will be obliged to keep their already aging cars longer and face a greater risk of involvement in fatal crashes.”

Scrappage is a car buyback scheme in which owners of older, unsafe and polluting cars are offered an incentive to scrap their vehicles.

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