ACT unveils election climate policy, vows to scrap net zero target and repeal Zero Carbon Act

The ACT party has vowed to get rid of the net zero emissions target, repeal the Zero Carbon Act and cut carbon tax if elected.Its climate policy is largely a repeat of what it brought to the 2023 election campaign, and promises not to "kneecap New Zealand's prosperity for the sake of political virtue signalling".ACT leader David Seymour said the country's approach to dealing with climate change was broken and sending the country broke."A small trading nation can't ignore climate policy, but overdoing it backfires and puts unnecessary costs on Kiwi businesses and households," he said.ACT's policy was "grounded in economic reality" and would reduce emissions without imposing costs on New Zealanders that trading partners were unwilling to bear, Seymour said.The policy includes:repealing the Zero Carbon Act and scrapping the target of net zero emissions by 2050, instead benchmarking New Zealand's emissions cap against major trading partnerscutting the Carbon Tax by removing the Government's minimum price for Emissions Trading Scheme auctionsintroducing a carbon tax refund, returning 100 per cent of net carbon auction revenue to New Zealandersopposing new climate taxes, including a tax on agricultural emissionsdiscouraging productive farms being converted into carbon forests and requiring forest owners to carry long-term costs and risks of their forestsoffering "carbon assistance" to businesses that can demonstrate a competitive disadvantage against overseas producers if those competitors have lower or no carbon costsACT leader David Seymour said the government was not making money through carbon actions because it refused to sell units for less than $70."If we remove that artificial price floor, we can start selling New Zealand units back into the ETS," he said."The taxpayer will get the revenue from that as a carbon dividend for each household."Seymour said households paid nearly $500 annually in carbon tax which was built in to things like petrol and power."We would have the government start selling units again at whatever the market price is and return that money to households."Inland Revenue could issue it as a refund against taxes, he said.ACT Climate Change spokesperson Simon Court said ACT would also seek a "better deal" for New Zealand under the Paris Agreement.New Zealand has pledged to halve its emissions by 2030."New Zealand produces a tiny share of global emissions," Court said."We should play our part, but there is no virtue in sacrificing jobs, household incomes and productive land so politicians can boast about being more ambitious than everyone else."Seymour added the Paris Agreement did not reflect New Zealand's status as an agricultural nation, viewing methane and carbon dioxide as having the same impact."That's unfair on an agriculturally-based economy like New Zealand," he said."So we say, Paris needs to change and reflect the true science that methane is different from CO2. If they're not prepared to be reasonable, maybe we should look at pulling out."Court said ACT's climate policy would reward efficient local businesses, rather than push production offshore."If a New Zealand business can produce steel, cement, aluminium or food more efficiently than its overseas competitors, closing that business is an economic own goal and an environmental one too," he said."ACT will cut unnecessary costs, protect Kiwi jobs, give carbon revenue back to households and let innovation deliver cleaner solutions."ACT previously revealed it would campaign on disestablishing the Climate Change Commission, which was also a 2023 election promise.