Mike's Minute: We aren't prepared to pay the climate price

Author: Mike Hosking ,
Publish Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2026, 10:52am

Almost on cue, the Climate Commission has entered this week's climate debate and told us we are at risk of missing our targets.

This isn't to do with Golden Bay Cement specifically. It's generally about the fact that we have mucked about with rules and promises and things slowed down to a point they have decided we need to "crack on".

Part of their statement to incentivise is the suggestion we are now, as in you and me, missing the chance to save money with renewables and new technologies.

"We need to double the pace of emissions reductions, or else (insert alarm bell noise) we will not meet our targets!”

"The time to correct this, the window of rectification, is closing.”

We have of course heard this before. This is the climate alarmism catch cry all over the world. The great two degrees debate, the burning earth, the changing seasons.

Trouble is it hasn’t, and isn't, working, not to the extent it needs to.

There would seem no doubt our seasons have changed and dramatically. The European heatwaves are real, and hotter, and longer. I assume if the super El Niño turns out to be a thing bits of South America will burn, or flood, or both.

But it still hasn’t meant we have done what we allegedly need to do. The two sets of facts seem indisputable i.e. we are warming up alarmingly and we are not doing what we need to do.

So we are kind of stuck. We know the problem, we probably know the answer, but we are not prepared to make the sacrifice to do it.

The big winner of course is self-interest. You get the satellite debates, the one where no matter what we do a country like New Zealand will literally make no difference and/or the big polluters like China and Russia and the US aren't doing enough, and until they do, why should we?

But the big debate, the one the Climate Commission freaks out about, I think is lost. We are simply not prepared to pay the price.

It's never been easier to go solar and yet we haven't. We don’t compost, we haven't stopped flying, and we still see the ETS as esoteric, or theoretical, or pointless.

We are trying, but not to the point of success. So now what?