A coalition of environmental, faith and construction industry groups say that the Climate Commission's final advice on the government’s Second Emissions Reduction Plan is a clear signal that it’s time to end the system of free carbon credits .
In 2019, the Government announced a $200m fund to help public sector organisations, including schools, to swap fossil-fuelled boilers for cleaner sources of heating. The programme has focused on coal, the most-polluting fossil fuel. But the announcements have been silent on the total number of schools using fossil fuels, including coal but also diesel and gas. To find an answer, a coalition – comprising 350 Aotearoa, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, OraTaiao Health and Climate Council, Parents for Climate Aotearoa and School Strike 4 Climate NZ and the teachers’ unions NZEI Te Riu Roa and Post Primary Teachers Association – tallied all available data. They confirmed at least 277 schools are heated by fossil fuels. Of these, 125 schools used coal. The project identified the fuel used by 546 schools, but the heating tech of nearly 2,000 schools remained unknown.