There are New Zealanders who don’t turn on the heater because the bill will be too high.

There are New Zealanders whose electricity went out in storms and didn’t come back on for days.

There are New Zealanders who choose to keep their old gas stove because they can’t afford the up-front cost of changing, even while gas keeps getting scarcer and pricier.

And there is a government that doesn’t have a plan for New Zealand’s energy future.

That is the face of the energy trilemma: we need energy that is affordable, reliable and sustainable. But we don’t have it – and worse, we don’t have a clear plan to have it.

Worse still, the energy equation is changing around us, in the form of geopolitical chaos, increasing energy needs for data centres and the electrification of businesses and homes, and more frequent and more disruptive stormy weather. The system that was already struggling is now in crisis. A bit of number 8 wire whenever there’s a problem won’t fix the underlying problems.

That’s why 350 Aotearoa have completed a report on New Zealand’s energy system. We call upon our government to make a plan, a 30-year, cross-party plan that won’t get scuttled as soon as the next bunch come into office.

This strategy must achieve three things:

1. It must accelerate the building of new renewable energy infrastructure.
2. It must safeguard communities from energy hardship.
3. It must fix the failures of the energy market while increasing efficiency.

Our report is not led by or commissioned by the government or by the big power companies. We don’t have a profit motive. We do have the wisdom of a range of community leaders and experts in different aspects of the energy system, gathered through interviews.

Below is a summary of what we have found about HOW an energy plan needs to be developed. What needs to happen to make sure we have an energy plan that works for people and planet? Click here if you want to read the full report. This report follows others we have written about problems in the energy sector, from the Gentailers role in generating scarcity and Methanex’s hunger for energy.

How should a plan be made? Who should be involved? And what are the core underlying goals we need to keep in sight?

1. We must accelerate new renewable infrastructure.

   There needs to be enough energy being produced so that we can continue to phase fossil fuels out while ensuring communities are resilient from climate and other natural disasters.
   This will take three things:

   1. We need to end the investment drought in renewable energy. The four big energy companies that both generate and sell energy into the grid (the gentailers) have been paying shareholder dividends ahead of building new renewable generation. The government, which is responsible for public assets like energy and is a major shareholder in the gentailers, can and must push investment in renewables.
   2. New energy should not only come from large scale projects, but also from smaller scale community-owned projects that sit in or near where people live. Well distributed energy is more efficient and helps communities become more resilient. As Gareth Cartwright, Director of the Community Energy Network New Zealand, told us ‘A healthy community energy sector means that every region has a fit-for-purpose, community strategy … We just need friendly policy and some really generous funding criteria, not free.’
   3. As we experience more frequent and intense weather events, it becomes increasingly clear that fossil fuels should make up as little as possible of our energy mix. Despite this, there continue to be policies aimed at fossil fuel extraction and use. A responsible government would signal to the market that we are not interested in continuing fossil fuel deals that lock us into climate-heating geopolitical chaos, and into paying soaring prices for a dwindling, non-renewable resource.

2. We must empower and safeguard communities across the motu.

   We need a strategy that ensures that people can access and pay for the energy they, their whanau and their communities need. Decisions about how to build energy should be made in partnership with communities, including iwi and hapu, so that plans are just and honourable.This requires respecting three bottom lines:

   1. Access to affordable energy must be recognised as a human right. Nobody should have to forego warmth, hot meals, or access to digital tools. As Kate Day, of Common Grace Aotearoa, puts it, ‘Everyone deserves to be able to access affordable energy, and that includes people on low incomes.’
   2. Decisions being made about energy must begin with Te Tiriti partnerships so that tikanga and te ao Māori are foundational to co-design. Maria Bargh, an academic specialising in Tika transition, argues that ‘we actually need to use less of the planet’s resources. An energy strategy can’t be premised on growth. It has to incorporate tikanga Māori and tino rangatiratanga.
   3. Communities, including iwi and hapu, should have a say in where their energy comes from. By using decision-making processes embedded in deliberative democracy, like citizens’ assemblies, policy can be made that supports the long-term thriving of communities. Processes that include the values and needs of communities help to increase trust in democracy.

3. We need a market structure that works effectively to deliver benefits to the people who rely on it.

   These are the essentials for a better energy market system:

   1. We need to be honest about what is working and what isn’t: as John Campbell told us, ‘we’re now three decades in – more or less – to a market design that we’ve had, is it delivering the outcomes that we thought it would?’
   2. We need to rethink the centralised nature of the current infrastructure to ensure it is able to cope with future climate and other challenges. An effective smart grid that can quickly adjust to energy flowing in and out will be necessary to underpin this.
   3. People who work in energy related jobs need to be well supported to move along with the transition to a cleaner and more distributed grid.

What can you do to help make this happen?

If you have enjoyed this summary, please share it with friends, family and colleagues.
Read and share the full report.
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