Six experts appointed climate change commissioners

A team of experts to provide governments with advice on climate change has been announced by climate change minister James Shaw.

The creation of an independent, non-political body to monitor and advise on how governments can meet New Zealand’s climate change targets was part of the Zero Carbon Act.

The Act was branded insufficient by the independent scientific group Climate Action Tracker, saying it doesn’t introduce any policies to actually cut emissions, rather setting the framework – which includes aims to reduce transport emissions and promote low and zero emission vehicles such as EVs.

“We provided a bold legislative framework for what we need to do build a climate-friendly future for New Zealand; it is the Climate Change Commission which will now advise us on how best to do that,” Shaw says.

The six commissioners are experts in the fields of climate science, adaptation, agriculture, economics, and the Maori-Crown relationship.

“Some issues are too big for politics, and the biggest of all is the climate crisis we face. Our decision to create the Climate Change Commission was about protecting climate policy from political mood swings, meaning every future government can stay focused on the job at hand: to help solve climate change and make our communities are cleaner and healthier,” Shaw says.

“Whilst it is an advisory body, I fully expect that the impartial and scientifically rigorous analysis it will provide will help keep future governments’ climate policy in check.”

The commission will pick up the work started by the Interim Climate Change Committee appointed in May 2018.

In addition to Dr Rod Carr, who was appointed as the chair-designate for the Climate Change Commission in October, Lisa Tumahai will continue in her role as deputy chair.

Other commissioners are Dr Harry Clark, a New Zealand expert on agricultural greenhouse gas research; Dr Judith Lawrence, a thought leader with international expertise in climate change adaptation; Catherine Leining, a leading New Zealand economist on climate policy and emissions pricing systems; professor James Renwick, a leading climate scientist and a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Science Prize for Communication; professor Nicola Shadbolt, a farmer, company director and academic, with expertise in land use and land use change.