New Zealand Bans New Fossil Fuel Power Plants!

New Zealand electricity producers face a 10-year moratorium on all new gas- or coal-fired power plants to help the country reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The nation’s Prime Minister also commits to 90% renewable electricity by 2025.

Electricity producers in New Zealand are now barred from constructing any new fossil fuel power plants for the next ten years, according to Bloomberg.com.

New Zealand already produces about 70 percent of its power from non-polluting and renewable energy sources, including wind, hydro-electric and geothermal generators. New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Helen Clarke, recently announced intention to commit to 90% renewable electricity by 2025 and the government is blocking construction of new gas-fired power plants to speed investment in wind and geothermal energy.

Eventually, the Prime Minister (pictured below) would like to see the country carbon-neutral. “I have set out the challenge to our nation to become the first truly sustainable nation on earth … to dare to aspire to be carbon neutral,” Prime Minister Clarke said.

The Prime Minister also gave a brief outline of further goals, which included a 2040 target of reducing by half per capita emissions from transport and widely introducing electric vehicles. She also stated the goal of achieving a net increase in forest area of 250,000 hectares (617,000 acres) by 2020.

“The long-term benefits of becoming a sustainable nation will spread beyond our national reputation and success in business to benefit all New Zealanders,” Prime Minister Clarke added.

Both announcements come as the government releases the New Zealand Energy Strategy, the New Zealand Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy and the Transport Strategy Implementation Plan.

Well there’s an example of how you set your priorities if you are truly committed to the sustainable, just, and prosperous energy future we should all be striving for. Complete carbon neutrality is the ultimate objective for developed nations, and New Zealand seems committed to showing us the way. Bravo!

About Jesse

Jesse is a young activist, organizer, policy analyst and blogger. He is currently the director of energy and climate policy at the Breakthrough Institute where he helps Breakthrough develop and advance new energy solutions to power America's future, secure our energy freedom, and halt global warming. Jesse joined the Breakthrough team in June 2008 to co-direct the Breakthrough Generation Summer Fellows Program. Before joining the Breakthrough Institute, Jesse spent two years as a Research and Policy Associate at the Renewable Northwest Project where he worked to advance the development of the Pacific Northwest's abundant renewable energy potential. While at RNP, he helped pass two statewide renewable energy standards (in WA and OR) and block plans to build 800 MW of new coal plants. In the past, Jesse has worked as a researcher and software developer with the Department of Physics at the University of Oregon, where he focused on alternative vehicles and fuels, and as a teacher's assistant in energy studies courses at the university. Jesse has a long history of grassroots climate and energy activism and co-founded the Cascade Climate Network, the Northwest's largest network of youth working to tackle the climate crisis and build a sustainable, just, and prosperous future. An active blogger, Jesse is the founder and blogmaster of the site, WattHead - Energy News and Commentary. He currently writes at several sites throughout the blogosphere and has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and Baltimore Sun. Jesse graduated in 2006 with a B.S. from the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon, where he completed an interdisciplinary course of study in computer science, philosophy, liberal arts, political science & energy studies. Jesse currently lives in Berkeley, CA.

3 Responses to “New Zealand Bans New Fossil Fuel Power Plants!”

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1 kent beuchert Oct 16th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

Geothermal makes sense. Investing in wind is braindead - they should read the newspapaers and invest in solar thermal. Wind cannot help met new demand in any fashion - it’s non-dispatchable, birdbrains. And the need is for CARBON-FREE energy, not renewable, energy. Most renewable energy
lags way behind nuclear in its ability to reduce carbon. The job is to remove carbon from the atmosphere, not put it back.
2 Cascadia Brian Oct 16th, 2007 at 9:15 pm

This is excited news….but it’s frighteningly ironic that this comes out the same day that climate and indigenous rights activists all around New Zealand were arrested in raids throughout the country yesterday.

see http://climatechangeaction.blogspot.com/ for coverage
3 Carlos Rymer Oct 17th, 2007 at 12:58 pm

Awesome! The entire world should be next. We should organize a “shut down coal spring break” next semester. Anybody interested?

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