The cost of the zero emissions bill

The Herald reports:

New Zealand’s economy could miss out on up to $50 billion worth of economic growth because of the Zero Carbon Bill, according to official analysis.
But Climate Minister James Shaw tells the Herald the figure does not worry him and says the cost of doing nothing could be much higher.

Personally I would hope a Minister would have a better argument than “it could be higher” when talking about destroying $50 billion of economic growth.

The RIS, written by officials at the Ministry for the Environment, reveals that New Zealand’s economy will grow to $522 billion by 2050 if the zero carbon legislation is not adopted and the status quo is maintained.
However, if the legislation does come into force – as it is expected to later this year – the RIS showed New Zealand’s GDP in 2050 will be between $472 billion and $476 billion.
That is a difference of $45 billion to $49 billion.

Which means each NZ household would be around $20,000 worse off.

Plus, the figure does not take into account the economic impacts he said climate change would have on New Zealand.
For example, the estimate does not factor in the cost of droughts, floods, storms and rising sea level – all of which would cost the economy billions of dollars, Shaw said.

None of which will be impacted one iota by us cutting our emissions as we are 0.1% of global emissions. Only if you believe China and India will plunge their middle classes back into poverty to also become zero emissions, will these impacts be avoided.