Money to Burn: Hutt City's Half-Baked Climate Initiative

The Taxpayers' Union lambasts Hutt City Council's recent unveiling of a Low Carbon Acceleration Fund as a misguided venture. Promising up to 50% co-funding for carbon-cutting projects in Lower Hutt, the initiative splashes cash in the face of common sense and the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Oliver Bryan, spokesperson for the Taxpayers’ Union, said, “The council's Low Carbon Acceleration Fund takes a wild swing and misses by a country mile, embodying the epitome of feel-good, virtue-signalling politics without the payoff. This venture into environmental finance is an expensive folly, blatantly ignoring the ETS's comprehensive strategy for reducing emissions efficiently through a market-driven approach.”

“This initiative not only misunderstands the mechanics of meaningful emissions reduction but also squanders taxpayer money under the guise of local action, which, thanks to the ETS, ends up redundant. It’s crucial to underline that with the ETS's nationwide cap on emissions, the fund's local reductions will make no reduction to net emissions or be of any benefit to the environment. Meanwhile, Hutt City residents are left to ponder the value of their skyrocketing council rates, which surged over 12% between 2022 and 2023.”