Parliamentary hopefuls The Opportunities Party would give the Climate Change Commission independent powers similar to the Reserve Bank

Hear, Hear, chebbo 

TOP's best chance is to try and win Ilam (maybe by stitching a deal up with Labour - the MP who replaced Gerry Brownlee in 2020 is seen out working as frequently as Lord Lucan and Shergar) but it will be an uphill struggle as there is the solidly National part of the Ilam electorate in the wealthier suburbs, who would vote for a blue coloured dog if it were running, then the students in the area all tend to vote Green if they aren't too hungover to crawl out of bed on election day, and then there are the more working/middle class suburbs that will generally go Labour. TOP is more likely to take votes from Labour than National and although Manji has done alright as an independent in the past I don't think it will be enough. 

From a strategic perspective I don't think Ilam was a great choice of electorate to run in for Manji, even if he lives there. Having grown up and spent about 30 years of my life in the area (although now moved out I still live in Chch and have friends and family in the area) there's one other problem I see for TOP - the electorate has suburbs like Burnside, Bishopdale and Avonhead that are primarily middle class However, many of the houses sit on valuable land while the dwelling is worth little... I grew up in such a place, all my friends lived in similar when I went to school in the area and so on. 

Obviously you'd have to do the TOP tax calculator test, but I know a couple of friends and family who've tried it and found they would be on the hook for higher taxes overall due to the land value, because their modest 3 bedroom Bishopdale house they bought before property prices went wacko has a bit of grass in the front and back and so it would be better if Wolfbrook and Williams Corp can hoover up some more sections and build their latest future slums to maximise "land efficiency" or whatever.

On the other hand if Manji can get on the phone to Hipkins it might be possible to stitch something up. 

Curious as to how one 'inflates money away'?

Inflation literally is money supply.

2 aspects I put forward.

1 I generally agree with your arguments re energy and the mining of resources. Primarily based on the human species being just one of the multitude of species occupying the ecosystem. In non-human species, when resources run short, there's a population collapse back to an equilibrium that can support the population (or there is an extinction event). The human species has insulated itself against such crises (e.g. rapid development of covid vaccine probably avoided massive death rates). And out of fundamental survival instinct, I don't see any human populations putting their hand up to say "knock me/us off so the population can reduce back to sustainable equilibrium". But the human species is on a relentless path to crisis.

2 Delaying that crisis is the likely path. Efficiency gains will be part of that.  In NZ, there is arguably significant efficiencies to be gained in our agricultural systems. The presently nebulous term regenerative agriculture can be part of this. Especially in regard to the mining, transport, processing of rock phosphate, a seriously dwindling mineral resource. Phosphate (P) is critical to the food chain. In the last 100 years, I calculate somewhere between 200 million and 300 million tonnes of P fertiliser has been applied to farmed soils in NZ.  About 10% of that is elemental P. And depending on soil geology, a percentage of that (high in clay soils) is locked on to the soil colloids, supposedly unavailablle to plant root systems (plantroots can only access P within millimetres of the root hairs). Soil mycelia (fungi) is gaining recognition for it's symbiotic relationship with plant root systems. Mycelia can break the tight bond  locking P to the colloids, that plant roots cannot do. Thereby extracting "locked" P from soil colloids, transporting that phosphate (over significant distance in plant root terms) to the plant roots and receiving carbon in return (one reason you see fairy rings in lawns and pastures where fungi flower such as mushroom rings).

Under what we now see as traditional farming systems, soil conditions to support beneficial mycelium populations are compromised. Some argue that the Olsen P soil test contributes to this because it only measures water soluble P in the soil sample, rather than the total P (water soluble and insoluble locked P) in the sample. Thereby ignoring the plant/mycelium symbiotic relationship.  Fertiliser applications are generally based on supplementing that soluble P - great for fertiliser sales.

Regenerative agriculture principles, now being researched and promoted, are aimed at enhancing the soil environment to support healthy soil biota which includes mycelia and beneficial bacteria (that are also nitrogen fixing, like inoculated  legumes, read clover). The potential efficiency gains arise from lower external fertiliser requirement through enhancing natural soil biological mining/cycling processes coupled with deep rooting species relocating minerals from deeper down in the soil profile into the shallower rooting zone of grasses and clovers.

This doesn't eliminate population driven crisis, but within NZ, it allows the currently economically critical agricultural sector to continue with reduced GHG emissions.

However,

2 aspects I put forward.

1 I generally agree with your arguments re energy and the mining of resources. Primarily based on the human species being just one of the multitude of species occupying the ecosystem. In non-human species, when resources run short, there's a population collapse back to an equilibrium that can support the population (or there is an extinction event). The human species has insulated itself against such crises (e.g. rapid development of covid vaccine probably avoided massive death rates). And out of fundamental survival instinct, I don't see any human populations putting their hand up to say "knock me/us off so the population can reduce back to sustainable equilibrium". But the human species is on a relentless path to crisis.

2 Delaying that crisis is the likely path. Efficiency gains will be part of that.  In NZ, there is arguably significant efficiencies to be gained in our agricultural systems. The presently nebulous term regenerative agriculture can be part of this. Especially in regard to the mining, transport, processing of rock phosphate, a seriously dwindling mineral resource. Phosphate (P) is critical to the food chain. In the last 100 years, I calculate somewhere between 200 million and 300 million tonnes of P fertiliser has been applied to farmed soils in NZ.  About 10% of that is elemental P. And depending on soil geology, a percentage of that (high in clay soils) is locked on to the soil colloids, supposedly unavailablle to plant root systems (plantroots can only access P within millimetres of the root hairs). Soil mycelia (fungi) is gaining recognition for it's symbiotic relationship with plant root systems. Mycelia can break the tight bond  locking P to the colloids, that plant roots cannot do. Thereby extracting "locked" P from soil colloids, transporting that phosphate (over significant distance in plant root terms) to the plant roots and receiving carbon in return (one reason you see fairy rings in lawns and pastures where fungi flower such as mushroom rings).

Under what we now see as traditional farming systems, soil conditions to support beneficial mycelium populations are compromised. Some argue that the Olsen P soil test contributes to this because it only measures water soluble P in the soil sample, rather than the total P (water soluble and insoluble locked P) in the sample. Thereby ignoring the plant/mycelium symbiotic relationship.  Fertiliser applications are generally based on supplementing that soluble P - great for fertiliser sales.

Regenerative agriculture principles, now being researched and promoted, are aimed at enhancing the soil environment to support healthy soil biota which includes mycelia and beneficial bacteria (that are also nitrogen fixing, like inoculated  legumes, read clover). The potential efficiency gains arise from lower external fertiliser requirement through enhancing natural soil biological mining/cycling processes coupled with deep rooting species relocating minerals from deeper down in the soil profile into the shallower rooting zone of grasses and clovers.

This doesn't eliminate population driven crisis, but within NZ, it allows the currently economically critical agricultural sector to continue with reduced GHG emissions.

However,

That's because National in 2020 was hammered in practically every electorate it stood a candidate in. It was the Great Anomaly (also known as Jacindamania Mark II).

I like their Biodiversity policy and they are evidence led,focussed on major issues rather than emotive minority identity stuff. They look to be the only rational centrist alternative to the big two.