Resolution and resistance: what shaped New Zealand’s climate change policies under the sixth Labour government?

Abstract

The sixth Labour government under Jacinda Ardern placed climate change at the centre of their agenda, referring to it as the ‘greatest challenge facing the world’. Definite progress was made on climate policy during the government’s tenure, particularly with the flagship Zero Carbon Act. Overall, however, policy changes were not transformative, and few policies were enacted that will substantially decrease emissions. This article sheds light on this gap between the sixth Labour government’s resolution to tackle climate change and the reality of actual policy outputs. We ask: what are the main factors that shaped climate policy outputs under the sixth Labour government? Using process tracing, we examine the ‘digital wake’ of key debates in three climate policy domains of energy, transport and agriculture. Using publicly available documents to investigate policies pursued by the government between 2018 and 2022, we find that industry resistance (particularly from the farming sector), coalition dynamics and public opinion all hindered progress. However, the government was not always fully committed to climate action,g particularly on reducing agricultural emissions. The difficulties experienced by the sixth Labour government in achieving their climate ambitions illustrate the strong political headwinds that impede delivery of substantive climate change mitigation in New Zealand.