Environment and economics: A marriage of (in)convenience?

New Zealand businesses need to face up to a range of “unpalatable environmental realities”,  Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton warned attendees at a Chapter Zero NZ breakfast in Auckland.

The hundreds of business leaders and Chapter Zero supporters at the event, titled Profit and the planet: (In)convenient truths, also heard from Dr Rod Carr CFInstD, who is finishing his five-year term as inaugural Chair of the Climate Change Commission.

Upton warned businesses need to confront five realities:

• The physical environment is deteriorating
• Certainty is not something you can demand of governments or the environment
• Environmental regulation is necessary
• Environmental taxes, levies or charges are unavoidable if a more environmentally sustainable economy is going to be affordable
• The risk of greenwashing is alive and well

Rt Hon Simon Upton

Simon Upton was sworn in as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment for his first five-year term in October 2017. He is now in his second term as Commissioner. 
Mr Upton is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a Rhodes Scholar, with degrees in English literature, music and law from the University of Auckland, and an MLitt in political philosophy from Oxford University. He was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in 1999.  

As a Member of Parliament between 1981 and 2000, Mr Upton held a variety of ministerial portfolios including environment, research, biosecurity, health and state services between 1990 and 1999.
  
After leaving Parliament, Mr Upton moved to Paris to chair the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  In 2005, he returned to New Zealand to pursue a number of private sector roles while continuing to chair the Round Table. 
 
In April 2010 he returned to the OECD full time as Environment Director, a post he held for seven years until returning to take up the role of Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. 

Dr Rod Carr, CFInstD

Dr. Rod Carr was appointed for a five-year term as founding chair of He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission in December 2019. The Commission has established a reputation for independent, expert advice on climate policy. Rod has given over 500 presentations, webinars and interviews on climate policy since his appointment. 

Previously Rod spent ten years as Vice Chancellor of the University of Canterbury during which time he also served as a non-executive director and Chair of the Board of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, a director of the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce and a number of other private and public company boards. He is currently an independent director of ASB bank. 

In 2022 Rod served in a personal capacity on a High-Level Expert Group which advised the Secretary General of the United Nations on the credibility of non-state actor net zero emission claims. The Report, endorsed by the Secretary General, was delivered at COP 27. 

Rod has run 23 marathons including in the Antarctic, on Easter Island and in 2019 in North Korea and inside the Polar Circle. Rod has been married to Jenny for over 40 years, they have four adult children and four grandchildren, all living in New Zealand. 

Rod has been legally blind since birth.