Managing a Just Transition in New Zealand's Taranaki Region

The document examines the Taranaki region's transition to a low-carbon economy, highlighting the Taranaki Roadmap 2050 and the role of the Just Transitions Unit. It details efforts to diversify the regional economy, support workers through retraining and proposed insurance, and integrate Māori worldviews into success metrics. While praising the proactive and inclusive planning, the author notes that onshore oil and gas permits are still being granted and the long-term effectiveness of the diversification strategies remains to be seen.

• The Taranaki region is highly economically dependent on the oil and gas sector, which contributes an estimated 30 per cent of regional gross domestic product despite directly employing only 750 people, or just over one per cent of total employment.
• The New Zealand government established a Just Transitions Unit (JTU) in 2018 within the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment to provide expertise in regional planning and economy-wide transition modelling, supported by a C$2.47 billion Provincial Growth Fund.
• The Taranaki Roadmap 2050, co-created with communities, iwi, government, and unions, identifies 12 Transition Pathways to diversify the economy, including a significant focus on the development of the Māori economy.
• Worker support strategies include active labour market policies and skills retraining, with the government, Business New Zealand, and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions jointly designing a Social Unemployment Insurance scheme to help workers retain about 80 per cent of their income after job loss.
• Taranaki is exploring a diverse range of clean energy technologies through the Ara Ake centre, funded with NZ$27 million (C$23 million) by the national government, including wind, wave, geothermal, and hydrogen-based energy.
• The transition framework incorporates distributional, recognitional, and procedural justice, integrating Māori worldviews of well-being into its metrics and evaluation process.
• Despite the offshore ban, the document notes that New Zealand continues to grant onshore oil and gas permits, which constitute two-thirds of the oil industry, leading the Climate Action Tracker to rate the country's actions as "highly insufficient".

APA

Canadian Climate Institute (2022). Managing a Just Transition in New Zealand's Taranaki Region. https://climateinstitute.ca/publications/managing-a-just-transition-in-new-zealands-taranaki-region/

Chicago

Canadian Climate Institute. Managing a Just Transition in New Zealand's Taranaki Region. 2022. https://climateinstitute.ca/publications/managing-a-just-transition-in-new-zealands-taranaki-region/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Canadian Climate Institute |title=Managing a Just Transition in New Zealand's Taranaki Region |date=18 July 2022 |url=https://climateinstitute.ca/publications/managing-a-just-transition-in-new-zealands-taranaki-region/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{canadianclimateinstitute2022managing, author = {{Canadian Climate Institute}}, title = {{Managing a Just Transition in New Zealand's Taranaki Region}}, institution = {Canadian Climate Institute}, year = {2022}, month = jul, url = {https://climateinstitute.ca/publications/managing-a-just-transition-in-new-zealands-taranaki-region/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }