This submission is made on behalf of the members of the New Zealand Council of Cargo Owners. The Council comprises the largest companies that own New Zealand’s import and export freight. Many of these companies will have made individual submissions.
We are grateful for this opportunity to comment.
The Council wishes to be associated with the submission made by Business New Zealand.
The Business New Zealand submission covers all aspects of this advice. This submission focusses on those issues that most directly affect the Council.
As a general comment we note that our members are generally supportive of New Zealand contributing to a global emissions reduction. We agree that New Zealand needs to do more to achieve our domestic carbon reduction obligations. We note that climate change is a global problem and should be seen in this context. New Zealand, itself, at 0.2% of global emissions, cannot unilaterally make anything more than the most marginal of impacts on this challenge. We have to contribute our part to the solution, but we need to be ensuring that others – particularly our global competitors – are also part of the solution. In this regard we are very pleased to note the changed attitude from the United States. If we get policy wrong, or if we move out too far in advance of our global competitors, there will be implications for our global competitiveness. The Commission could have spent more time reflecting on this dilemma.
