New Zealand government may achieve transformation
Significance Fourteen days beforehand, Ardern said no new offshore oil and gas exploration permits would be awarded -- evidence she said of the “government of transformation” she promises. The offshore ban does not affect the wide areas already open for exploration and exploitation over the next three decades, but it reinforces the government’s intention to be more active on climate change and environmental protection. Like the government's “wellbeing economics”, this might prove transformative if Ardern can retain office through to at least the next election in 2020. Impacts The offshore oil and gas exploration ban could see earlier withdrawal by major oil producers. Onshore permits for oil and gas exploration and coal mining will continue. Any major political or economic shock will affect “transformation”, as Robertson warns.