Our 2011 election manifesto - Labour Party

Electric vehicles used for local travel can be recharged from an owner‟s home. Vehicles
used for longer distances, however, will need a supporting infrastructure of recharging
stations.
Labour will promote the introduction of a nationwide infrastructure to recharge electric
vehicles.
New Zealand should be one of the first countries to set up a nationwide infrastructure for
charging electric vehicles. We will need to work through a variety of issues, including the
cost and funding of recharging technology, and relevant health and safety issues. We will be
able to learn from experience elsewhere in the world.
Forestry
As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as wood (with
forests therefore sometimes being referred to as „carbon sinks‟). When forests are felled,
they release carbon.
Forestry is rewarded under the ETS. That is because forests, as carbon sinks, have a big
role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and in helping New Zealand meet its
international climate change obligations.
Labour will therefore encourage increased forest cover, and particularly the planting of native
forest that will not be harvested.
Labour will encourage landowners to plant forests to act as carbon sinks, and provide
incentives and information on suitable trees to plant.
Several schemes are already in place to encourage the planting of forests. However, trees
vary in their ability to capture and store carbon. There are also biodiversity issues to
consider when determining the optimal mix of planting.
Lignite
New Zealand‟s lignite resources are immense but the environmental case against largescale
lignite use is overwhelming.
Labour does not support the mining of lignite, and its conversion to liquid fuels using current
technologies, because of the high volume of greenhouse gases produced.
Solid Energy, an SOE, wants to mine lignite deposits in Southland for this purpose. This
would increase our national greenhouse gas emissions bill by at least 20%.
Labour does not support government capital, through an SOE, being invested into lignite
development unless and until the resulting carbon emissions can be captured and stored
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