The New Zealand Parliament decided Thursday to authorize offshore prospecting for gas and oil, returning to a ban put in place by the previous center-left government of Jacinda Ardern. Qualifying the climate change of “large hysteria”, the Minister of New Zealand Energy was delighted with the end of a “heresy”.
For the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Shane Jones, of the populist party New Zealand first, new laws would stimulate investment in exploring oil deposits and would help to alleviate energy supply problems during the winter.
“The prohibition of exploration of 2018, which was a failure, exacerbated the shortages of our national gas supply, destroying new investments,” he deplored.
“Worse decision” in the history of the country
The ban on offshore exploration was “the worst decision concerning energy and natural resources” in the country’s history, has overbid Shane Jones. “We are not going […] Eroding the productivity of our economy by preventing access to fossil fuels, “he added, welcoming that the era of this” heresy “is over.
In 2018, center-left Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said he wanted to “attack climate change and create a clean, green and sustainable future for New Zealand”.
Critics of opposition parties
The text, which the government wanted to pass at the end of 2024 but whose adoption had been delayed several times, was voted with 68 votes for and 54 against. All the opposition parties rejected him.
Steve Abel, deputy of the Green Party, criticized an “archaic” government: “it is extraordinary that we are there, years later, to return to gas and oil prospecting after our nation was greeted worldwide for its vision,” he said.
New Zealand has long promoted an image of champion in environmental matters, highlighting its hilly pastures, its intact tropical forests and its clear waters.
Jacinda Ardern, who led the country from 2017 to 2023, had formed a coalition with the Greens and alerted to “climate emergency”. Since its mandate, energy prices have increased by more than 10%, even if electricity consumption has dropped.
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