‘Fossil-fuel free Aotearoa’ – Green Party

The Green Party has revealed the first part its plan for a fossil-fuel free Aotearoa, which includes introducing grants to halve the price of home solar installation.

While the newly announced Clean Energy Plan doesn’t specifically mention EVs, it does provide some possible contributions to EV uptake – perhaps helping in some small part for the inaction over the government’s proposed Clean Car Plan.

A Clean Energy Industry Training Plan to support thousands of people into jobs, is among the latest plan’s recommendations.

The plan would allow upgrading all 63,000 social and community homes with solar panels and batteries, Green Party co-leader James Shaw says.

The party would ban new industrial coal boilers within the first 100 days in government, end coal use in Aotearoa by 2030, create a $250 million Clean Energy Fund which communities can draw from for local renewable energy projects and simplify planning rules to make it easier to build wind turbines.

As well as offering grants for privately-owned homes to go solar, the Green Party would offer grants and low-interest loans for businesses to transition too.

“Our Clean Energy Plan is the first part of our transformational plan to end the use of fossil-fuels in Aotearoa. It will help to ensure our grandchildren inherit a world where they can not only survive, but thrive,” Shaw says.

“When all our energy comes from the sun, the wind, and the flow of rivers, we won’t need to burn the fossil fuels that cause the climate crisis.”

Green Party energy spokesperson Gareth Hughes says the plan allows New Zealand to go further and faster on climate action.