Request for information on the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution

Details of the request

I am aware New Zealand will soon, or already be, preparing to submit it’s second NDC to the Paris Agreement. I am interested in reviewing some of the material used to inform the first NDC’s predecsor – the “INDC” (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, submitted July 2015). A copy of this is attached. 

Specifically, I would like:

1. Briefing notes, memos, cabinet papers sent to Ministers in the 12 months prior to the INDC being tabled, relating to the INDC.
2. Where the INDC says “In order to achieve domestic reductions and to do so at an affordable cost, we have identified a need for cost effective mitigation technology, and in particular that our continuing investment in agricultural research delivers results that can be commercialised within the time period covered by this contribution,” could you provide the assumptions that lead to this, for example:
   1. Assumptions relating to the technologies commercialisation, assumed effectiveness and update.
   2. Any spreadsheets that contain this information. 
3. The INDC states, “The likely cost to the New Zealand economy of meeting the 2030 target in terms of GDP is greater than that implied by other Parties’ tabled targets.” Could I have a copy of the analysis that supported this statement. While it wouldn’t be practical to share all internal analysis, if this could be interpreted to cover finished papers that may have been shared prior to internal workshops, workshops with other agencies, or briefings with Ministers on this issue. i.e. I don’t need all information, just enough to understand what the basis for comparison was, how this was calculated, and what countries we compared ourselves to.

As a note, I assuming that much of this material has been released in the past under previous OIA requests. Two notes to this however,

• When I sort previous OIAs by “Oldest first” on the MFE website, the oldest OIA request available is 2018. If older OIA requests were easily available this may reduce the need for this OIA. Is there a reason why MfE doesn’t house older information on the website? A lot of great work was done by the Ministry during the period leading up to the Paris Agreement and it is still of public interest. I would recommend MFE find a way to allow old briefing information (even going back to 1992 UNFCCC?) on this topic available as it is of high public interest to support a public debate that is well informed of the history of the climate change issue. 
• However, I am also conscious that these older OIA requests may have had a lot of redactions made. With the passage of time, much of the redactions may now be able to be lifted. If old OIA requests are identified, I would prefer that these could be reviewed with an aim of lifting redactions that may now no longer be needed. Potentially what needed to be redacted at a period the NDC was still ‘Intended’ may be able to be released more fulsomely now. 

Released documents

• Draft Cabinet Paper - International Climate Change New Zealand's commitments and negotiations [PDF, 113 KB]
• Memo to Minister Groser on headline number 05-06-2015 [PDF, 1.1 MB]
• New Zealands intended contribution to the new global climate change agreement 1692601 [PDF, 559 KB]
• Equal GDP Estimates [PDF, 74 KB]
• NDC Options overview [PDF, 879 KB]