From margins to mainstream

The reaction to my comment on water pricing last August took me rather by surprise. A radio interviewer had asked me about the dairying boom and its environmental effects, particularly on water. Pricing is the normal way in which society allocates scarce resources. But the very idea of charging for water generated numerous media headlines around the country.

Although Sir Geoffrey Palmer once famously said "New Zealand is an irredeemiably pluvial country", we don't always have rain where and when we want. About 70 percent of the consumptive use of water is in Canterbury, and in mid-Canterbury aquifer levels are falling. Climate change models predict that eastern regions of the country will all get drier.

Our consenting system for water, as for the allocation of all resources under the Resource Management Act, is first-come, first-served. I recall the concern expressed during the gestation of the RMA about the difficulty of dealing with cumulative effects. The case-by-case granting of water consents is now coming up against scarcity limits.

Pricing is of course not the whole answer to our water problems. But it must have an important role to play in the future. It is encouraging to see water metering being introduced in the Wairarapa, another dry eastern region.

But the extent of the media coverage reflects how, in just a few short years, environmental concerns have moved from margins to mainstream.

80 percent believers

No matter how you gauge public interest, environment now features strongly. Public opinion polls, for instance, show that 80 percent of New Zealanders believe climate change is a problem, and 85 percent support the government doing something about it.

This high support for the government "doing something about it" is very significant. A shallow somewhat cynical interpretation might be that this is ducking responsibility. But I think it is more about recognising the need for collective action - "I will if you will". Although some critics regard the government's Emission Trading Scheme as overly conservative and gradual, the good news is that it is supported by all the political parties in Parliament. In effect, Parliament has decided to act collectively.

Further evidence for the "mainstreaming" of environment is that major newspapers such as the New Zealand Herald and the Dominion Post now run regular 'green pages'. The pages are there because people want to know more about issues such as climate change, and that means more newspaper sales.

In politics, there has been a great shift in attitudes. Environmental themes may well capture some headlines in the 2008 election, a far cry from the 2005 election in which they barely featured. Heightened environmental awareness was certainly evident in the election campaign in Australia.

The breadth of concerns New Zealand faces was brought home to me in October when, along with four other PCE staff, I met with a range of environmental experts and researchers in Canterbury. We tapped their knowledge in a number of areas including water (quantity and quality), land use changes, urban development, climate change impacts, and carbon footprints.

Their input is helping shape our strategic planning and I am grateful for the generosity with which people share their knowledge and insights with us. Now that I have my feet firmly under the table in this wonderful new job, I look forward to meeting with many more people around the country.

Next year promises to be very eventful. In preparation for it, have a safe and enjoyable Christmas.

Dr Jan Wright
pce@pce.govt.nz

Pricing rather than consents to allocate scarce water

Pricing may be part of the answer for allocating water where it is scarce, Commissioner Dr Jan Wright told a parliamentary select committee in October.

Water in New Zealand is generally plentiful, but there is a scarcity problem in some areas at some times of the year, in some years. Water is also becoming more scarce in already dry East Coast areas, and the easy water in Canterbury has gone, she said.

Dr Wright was expanding on her comments reported earlier about water pricing and the dairying boom.

"Everything we do has an environmental impact. But the impact of dairying is particularly important because of the sheer scale of the change that is occurring," she told the Primary Production Committee.

Our current system of allocating water is through resource consents on a first-come, first-served basis. This is allocation by time, not by value. Pricing is the mechanism that leads to allocation by value.

It can also be used to address the quality problem. For instance, permits to discharge nitrogen into water bodies can be traded. Dr Wright says our water problems will not self correct and workable solutions are needed reasonably fast.

• See Dr Wright's presentation to the committee for graphs and slides from Canterbury, Southland, and the Waikato.

Canterbury issues canvassed

Five PCE staff visited Canterbury late in October to discuss a range of rural and urban environmental issues with experts and researchers in the region. They met with:

• a reference group on the PCE's investigation into the high country tenure review
• a Ngai Tahu representative about tenure review
• Environment Canterbury about the region's groundwater and rivers
• Professor Caroline Saunders at Lincoln University about her carbon footprint research
• Professor Ann Smith at Landcare Research about the CarboNZero scheme
• NIWA staff about the region's groundwater
• project managers for the Central Plains Water Scheme
• AgResearch staff on the region's changing land uses
• Christchurch City Council staff about the urban development strategy for greater Christchurch
• faculty at Lincoln University on research into nitrification inhibitors, and bacterial contamination of groundwater
• the developer of 'South of Lichfield', an innovative urban development in a formerly run-down area of Christchurch.

Information from these and other visits will feed into the PCE's 2008 workplan.

Winners of sustainability film challenge announced

Twenty young film makers were awarded prizes on 9 November for their entries to The Outlook for Someday sustainability film challenge, a project launched with PCE funding support.

The 20 winning films came from throughout New Zealand from film makers aged nine to 20. Prime Minister Helen Clark presented their awards in a ceremony at TVNZ in Auckland. The Connected Media Trust developed the project, and the PCE supported it as one of the events to mark its 20th anniversary.

The young film makers' brief was to make a short film, through a sustainability lens, on how they see the future unfolding. They came up with stories told in genres including dramas, documentaries and animations.

One film is a music video, another an advertisement from the 22nd century offering a chance to go back in time and "make a difference in the world then and now". The films tackle global and local issues, from advertising's visual pollution to climate change, and Piako River pollution to waste in eastern Greenland.

The winning films can now be viewed on TVNZ 6, the first of TVNZ's new digital channels on Freeview, and on TVNZ ondemand. They can also be viewed on the Outlook for Someday project website.

Other funding partners and sponsors included the Ministries of Education, Environment, and Youth Development; Save the Children NZ; NZ on Air; The Body Shop NZ; the Laptop Company; and the Sustainable Business Network.

PCE history available online

David Young's engaging history of the PCE can be purchased online from Manaaki Whenua Press for $14.55 (+ a $5 postage and handling fee).

Written for the PCE's 20th anniversary, Keeper of the long view takes an independent look at the PCE within the big picture of New Zealand's progress toward sustainability.

Higher density living can lower energy demands

Living closer together in smaller units such as apartments and town houses can be good for the environment because it reduces energy demands, says Dr Jan Wright.

"Small living units in our cities, situated closely together, could decrease our heating and transport energy," she told a sustainable building conference in Auckland on 14 November.

However, much development in New Zealand is now going in the opposite direction, she says. Our built environment today is essentially a set of low-density cities, and the growing energy consumption of these cities is a major sustainability threat.

Our light wooden houses have low thermal mass, and they are famously cold. According to the World Health Organisation, inside temperatures should ideally be between 18^o and 24^oC. BRANZ research shows that our living rooms on winter evenings average just below 18^oC, the bottom of the range, and our bedrooms are 4 to 5 degrees lower again. Regulations to improve housing are now appearing.

"There is, after many years of lagging behind other developed countries, widespread support for the new standards of thermal integrity - double glazing is arriving at last."

Our cold houses mean there is a lot of pent-up demand for space heating. Dr Wright quoted Amory Lovins, who said that using electricity to heat a house is like using a chainsaw to cut butter.

Electricity is our highest quality energy, but space heating to raise inside temperatures a few degrees is a low quality end-use. It also increases consumption in peak winter times, putting pressure on generation capacity.

Apartments and townhouses are easier and cheaper to heat than detached houses because they are smaller, they have fewer exterior walls, they usually have more thermal mass, and they often share their heat with each other.

Another unwelcome consequence of our low density cities is high energy use for transport. Greater population density would lead to shorter travel distances, more financially viable public transport, and to walking becoming a real option.

"It's not all about the inner city. Ideally, the densest housing and the densest employment centres are near other key nodes, and near links such as public transport spines."

Impact of PCE reports evaluated

'Good, but could be better', was the verdict of two recent PCE reports that looked at how well the recommendations from earlier PCE investigations have been taken up.

The first evaluation revisited the 2004 PCE investigation Missing links: Connecting science with environmental policy. This had looked at how to forge better links between scientific knowledge, public concerns, and environmental policy making.

While there had been positive signs of change, considerably more progress is needed to fully implement that report's recommendations, the evaluation found.

The second evaluation reviewed New Zealand's progress on education for sustainability following the 2004 PCE report See change: Learning and education for sustainability.

It found that we are now in a much stronger position than before the publication of See change to educate people and to support learning for sustainability at all levels. However, opportunities for progress remain.

PCE staff intake includes three new managers

Three new managers have taken up positions at the PCE, and three new research staff are due to begin in the coming weeks.

Office manager Wendy Hudson comes to the PCE from the Ministry of Health's human resources team. She has six years' public sector experience and will be organising the introduction of a number of new office processes at the PCE.

Dr Simon Watts brings a strong science, academic, and managerial background to the role of research manager. He is an atmospheric biogeochemist with major interests in air quality and sustainability.

Until June this year, Simon was a senior member of Oxford Brookes University's academic staff in the School of Life Sciences. He also holds an adjunct chair in biogeochemistry at Wellington's Victoria University.

Kay Baxter comes to the PCE after 15 years in the environment sector, most recently as the science manager for the Ministry for the Environment. She has also worked in Parliament, and for local government and industry managing a wide range of resource management issues.

Part of her new role as relationship manager will be to manage the PCE's work with select committees. Her other responsibilities include communications, external relations and strategic planning.

New research staff Geraldine Plas, Caren Schroder, and Jo Hendy come from a range of backgrounds and will take up positions in November and December.

PCE reports due

PCE reports due in the coming months include:

Electricity Commission:

The PCE is required by law to assess the environmental performance of the Electricity Commission. A report is due in December 2007.

Tenure review:

Land tenure in the South Island high country has been under government review. The PCE's report on the process is due in mid 2008.

Mapua clean-up:

The final public report on the clean-up of the former Fruitgrowers Chemical Company site at Mapua, near Nelson, is due in mid 2008.

International partners in a carbon market

New Zealand won't be left behind as international carbon trading develops with the launch of the International Carbon Action Partnership at the end of October 2007.

A coalition of European countries, US states, Canadian provinces, New Zealand and Norway have combined in an international forum for governments and public agencies that have adopted mandatory greenhouse gas emissions cap and trade systems. The forum will enable them to share experiences and best practices on the design of emissions trading schemes.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the launch of the partnership is a truly significant step forward in the global effort to combat climate change, and that trading emissions between nations would allow them all to reach their greenhouse gas targets more cost effectively.

Workplan for 2008

Fresh water and primary production, energy, and the legal and planning frameworks for managing New Zealand's environment are the overarching themes for a PCE workplan being finalised for 2008.

Clustered research projects under these general headings will likely include water allocation, forests and carbon trading, nitrate trading, solar heaters and heat pumps, smart meters, home heating, energy efficiency, cumulative effects and the RMA, transport funding, and urban form.