ECan flunks review
ECan's report card is back and Mum and Dad are unlikely to be happy. In fact expulsion may be the only answer!
The review group tasked with investigating the performance of Environment Canterbury ("ECan") has released its report and according to the report the gap between the capability of ECan to adequately manage Canterbury's freshwater resource and what needs to be done is "enormous and unprecedented".
The assessment of ECan was commissioned by the Minister for the Environment and the Minister for Local Government. The review group was chaired by former MP Wyatt Creech.
The review group's key recommendations are:
- A "Canterbury Regional Water Authority" should be created to assume all water related responsibilities in the Canterbury region.
- ECan should be replaced by a commissioner.
The review group recommends that special legislation should be passed to put its recommendations into effect as the scale and nature of the problem was not anticipated under either the Local Government Act or the Resource Management Act. The Canterbury Regional Water Authority would be a permanent body, while the temporary commissioner would be responsible for governing ECan until a new council is elected, possibly in 2013.
The review group considers that ECan has handled water issues in the absence of any sort of strategic framework. Institutional inertia and policy confusion have created serious problems, and the review group do not consider matters can improve without central government intervention. The review group notes the view that ECan has taken an environmental protector, rather than integrated management, approach to its role.
The Government's reaction to the recommendations of the review group remains to be seen. However, the Auckland super city demonstrates that the Government is unafraid to move swiftly and legislate to provide local government solutions.
Climate Change update: The Copenhagen Accord
The Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December last year saw more than 100 world leaders gather for the most important climate change conference since Kyoto. However, two years of negotiations aimed at building a new and comprehensive climate treaty ultimately faltered, and the Summit was unable to agree a binding overall target for curbing global greenhouse gas emissions. The conference did however produce the Copenhagen Accord.
The Accord was negotiated between 26 countries (largely brokered by the United States, China, India, Brazil and South Africa), but is not legally binding, and does not commit countries to agree to a binding successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. In effect, it is a letter of intent to pick up where negotiations left off rather than providing the binding agreement generally expected from Copenhagen.
The Accord does however provide a framework for more progress to be made ahead of the next climate change summit in Mexico, in December 2010. It aims to agree a limit on temperature rise to 2°C and to improve the transparency for developing countries to list their mitigation targets and actions and it acknowledges the need for new mechanisms for funding and technology. The Accord recognises that climate change will have unbalanced impacts on vulnerable countries and therefore there is a need to establish a comprehensive adaptation programme including international funding support. It also commits for the first time (if only in principle) all the countries of the world, including the developing countries, to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
The Accord makes provision for developed countries to submit details of their proposed emissions target for 2020. In late January New Zealand submitted a conditional emissions reduction target range of 10% to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 (the same target it took to Copenhagen in December). The conditions of New Zealand's submission are:
- A global agreement that sets the world on a pathway to limit global temperature rises of not more than 2°C.
- Comparable efforts by other countries.
- Actions by advanced and major emitting developing countries fully commensurate with their respective capabilities.
- Effective rules governing land use, land use change and forestry.
- Full recourse to a broad and efficient international carbon market.
New Zealand’s 2020 target will be less than the current -10 to -20 % range if these conditions are not met. Minister Responsible for International Climate Change Negotiations Tim Groser and Minister of Climate Change Issues Nick Smith noted that "For [New Zealand's] 2020 target to be representative of our fair share, other developed countries will need to set higher targets. Alternatively, New Zealand will need to reduce its target to ensure comparability".
There is little indication from the major developing economies that they see the Accord becoming legally binding. The international climate change negotiations have a two-track process and developing countries do not want to see these merged or replaced with the Accord. On the other hand, a number of developed countries have been advocating that the two-tracks must merge if a lasting agreement binding all industrialised countries is to be achieved. As President Obama noted immediately after the Summit, "We have come a long way, but we have much further to go".
The Copenhagen Accord is available here.
New technical advisory groups for Phase II of the RMA reforms
On 28 January 2010, Minister for the Environment Nick Smith announced two new technical advisory groups to support the Government's programme of resource management reforms. These groups will work with the Ministry for the Environment to report on urban development and associated infrastructure later this year. Dr Smith noted that:
“There are major question marks over the way the Resource Management Act is working in urban areas… I don’t think we have the incentives right for developers to do the best urban design in our largest cities. There are also questions about the policy of metropolitan urban limits, the effect they have on section prices and the negative flow-on effects to the broader economy. Nor do we have a good track record of having the right infrastructure in place at the right time for supporting urban development."
The Urban Technical Advisory Group ("Urban TAG") will be chaired by barrister Alan Dormer and includes planning consultant Adrienne Young Cooper, research economist and consultant Arthur Grimes, architect and urban designer Graeme McIndoe, Chief Executive of the Property Council of New Zealand Connal Townsend and Ernst Zollner of the New Zealand Transport Agency.
The Urban TAG is appointed to provide independent advice to the Minister for the Environment on proposals for the reform of the urban planning and design mechanisms in the RMA and related legislation. The scope of the review will look at the merits of tools currently available for implementing urban planning and design including:
- housing affordability / section pricing mechanisms;
- urban design panels;
- metropolitan urban limits;
- financing and funding mechanisms for infrastructure; and
- spatial and structure plans.
It will also look at integrating and aligning planning statutes and planning mechanisms, specifically the RMA, the Local Government Act 2002 and the Land Transport Management Act 2003. It is due to report on 31 March 2010.
The Urban TAG will play an important function in considering incentives for developers to create superior urban design in our largest cities; reviewing the application of the RMA in urban areas; and ensuring the the right infrastructure is in place at the right time for supporting urban development.
The Infrastructure Technical Advisory Group ("Infrastructure TAG") will be chaired by Mike Foster, Director of Zomac Planning Solutions Ltd, and includes planning consultant Adrienne Young Cooper, barrister Alan Dormer, solicitor Kelvin Reid, civil engineer Lindsay Crossen, Sacha McMeeking from Ngāi Tahu and the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development, Stephen Selwood.
The Infrastructure TAG is appointed to provide independent advice to the Minister for the Environment on proposals for the reform of the infrastructure provisions in the RMA and related legislation. The scope of the Infrastructure TAG investigation will include:
- a review of the role of designations in facilitating infrastructure development and an examination of options for reviewing and streamlining the designation mechanism;
- an investigation of alternatives to designations for planning for and managing the effects of activities on network infrastructure; and
- streamlining and integrating processes, including for acquisition and compensation under the Public Works Act 1981 and other legislation.
The Infrastructure TAG has a report date of 30 June 2010.
James Dow and Helen Liava'aa
Mining developments in 2010
2010 is shaping up to be a dynamic one on the natural resources and mining front.
In his Statement to Parliament on 9 February 2010, Prime Minister John Key revealed that the Government plans to open up certain parts of the Crown's Conservation estate, which is estimated to contain mineral resources with economic potential of up to $140 billion.
The Prime Minister also confirmed that the Government intends to release a discussion paper on this matter in the near future. The document will contain recommendations for removal of some land from Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act 1991 which designates a "protected class" of land over which mining licences cannot be granted.
There were also indications that the reforms would set up a Conservation Fund, with the purpose of drawing on royalties from mining licences granted over Crown land to resource special conservation projects around the country.
Read a summary of the Prime Minister's speech as it relates to mining in Russell McVeagh's Mining Update here.
The Government also has its sights on maximising untapped offshore potential in 2010. While the current Government does not look likely to progress Labour's Environmental Effects (Exclusive Economic Zone) Bill from 2008, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee has been working on offshore policy. Bidding for six new petroleum exploration blocks across the Reinga Basin, to be administered by Crown Minerals, was announced in January.
To aid exploration, the Government has acquired 2,026 kilometres of 2D seismic data over the Reinga Basin, the entirety of which occupies over 100,000 km2 that area is next to the Taranaki Basin, which contains all of New Zealand’s currently producing oil and gas fields.
Read more about the bidding process and the Reinga Basin at Crown Minerals here.
Proposed National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil
The Government has released a Proposed National Environmental Standard for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil ("NES"). The NES was publicly notified on 6 February 2010 and is now open for public submissions.
The objective of the NES is to ensure that contaminated land is safe for human use. Although New Zealand has a relatively low level of soil contamination in comparison to other developed countries, the use of chemicals in industry, agriculture, and horticulture has resulted in soil contamination, and there is an absence of any legislation dealing specifically with this issue.
Soil contamination in New Zealand has been caused largely by such activities as the manufacture and use of pesticides, the production of gas and coal products, the production, storage and use of petroleum products, timber treatment, historic mining, and sheep dipping. The Ministry for the Environment estimates that councils have identified approximately 20,000 potentially affected sites, of which only a small proportion have been adequately investigated.
The NES will assist councils in managing contaminated sites through the use of controls for assessing contaminants in soil and providing a set of chemical-specific soil contaminant thresholds. This will give councils the ability to identify contaminated land, assess the risk of adverse effects from the contaminants, and determine the appropriate remediation (eg clean up or containment of the site) required if the land is to be developed to ensure it is safe for human use.
The NES will apply to the assessment and management of the actual or potential adverse effects of contaminants in soil on human health from subsurface investigations and from the use, development, and subdivision of land. Interestingly, it does not apply to the management of adverse effects on ecology, surface water, groundwater and amenity values, and it seems likely that councils will seek to impose additional controls on these matters.
The Ministry for the Environment has undertaken a review of the Soil Guideline Values and these will be applied as part of the NES. These guidelines define the concentrations of contaminants at which the risk to human health is considered acceptable based on toxicological research. The NES also provides for permitted activity status (no resource consent required) for subsurface investigations of land to determine the presence, extent and nature of any contamination.
The Ministry for the Environment plans to hold consultation workshops during March 2010. See the Ministry for the Environment website for further information: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/laws/standards/contaminants-in-soil/index.html.
Submissions on the NES close on 19 April 2010.
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