Supplemental evidence on the impacts of climate framework laws

At the time of the interviews the Minister was Eamon Ryan, leader of the Green Party, and the prominent role he and the Greens play in the current coalition government makes it difficult to disaggregate the impacts of the legislation from the impacts of having the Green Party in government, particularly with a dynamic and committed leader in the picture. [...] As discussed below, the outcome of the case was that the government agreed to follow the advice of the CCC in future, strengthening perceptions of the Commission’s standing. [...] As one civil society interviewee put it, agriculture is the “sector that has been most affected by the law, at least at the level of the discourse around the contribution of the sector to the country…” and that the “parameters of public debate on agriculture are changing”. [...] For example, two interviewees with knowledge of the process pointed to the inclusion of the concept of the circular economy in the ERP as being a very positive outcome of the cross-sectoral nature of the process. [...] The new amendments included a provision requiring the NZ Climate Change Commission to advise the Minister for Climate Change on the appropriate limits and price controls for the NZ ETS to comply with the emissions budgets introduced in the ZCA.