Source: Greenpeace
As petrol prices climb to around $3 a litre, Greenpeace is pointing to a series of Government decisions that have left Kiwis hit harder by the oil price spike.
“The Luxon Government has spent the last two years dismantling policies that were helping wean New Zealanders off expensive imported oil,” says Gen Toop, Senior Campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa.
“Instead of helping households escape volatile and expensive petrol prices, they have crashed the EV market, slashed public transport funding and are spending billions on new roads.
“These decisions are making the climate crisis, and the cost of living crisis worse.”
Greenpeace points to a number of decisions that it says have increased New Zealand’s dependence on imported fossil fuels including:
- Scrapping the Clean Car Discount, which provided rebates for electric and low-emissions vehicles. The collapse in the EV market was instant: In 2023 around one in four new cars sold was electric, by early 2024 that had plummeted to one in 26.
- Cut fees on high-polluting vehicle imports by nearly 80% despite officials warning it would cost Kiwi drivers an extra $115 million at the pump. Now Ministers are considering going further and scrapping the clean car standard entirely,
- C ancelling Auckland Light Rail and scrapping Wellington’s low-emissions transport plan, both of which aimed to reduce car dependence in the country’s major cities.
- Ending half price public transport fares for young people
- S lashing funding for public transport, walking and cycleways while pouring billions into 17 roads of “national significance” – the total cost of those roads has now blown out to between $44 – $54 billion
- Cancelling the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) fund, which helped businesses move away from fossil fuels.
- Plans to build a new LNG import terminal so that New Zealand can begin importing and burning fossil gas for electricity.
“This Government is effectively turning New Zealand into a dumping ground for the world’s dirtiest, most oil-hungry cars while other countries rapidly switch to EVs,” Toop says.
“At the same time they are slashing public and active transport options which forces more people into cars leaving them facing more pain at the pump when petrol prices spike.
“This latest plan to build a multi-billion dollar LNG import terminal is ludicrous. Importing and burning another volatile fossil fuel is the last thing our climate, and power bills need. Especially when we have all the wind, sun and renewable energy potential we need right here at home.”
