.......but doesn’t NZ need all the income it can get?
At a time when the nation is reeling from the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle, climate change campaigner Greenpeace is demanding answers on why the government has yet to come up with an effective plan to cut emissions from the country’s biggest polluter.
Where’s the long-awaited plan to cut agricultural emissions? Greenpeace climate campaigner Christine Rose demands.
Prime Minister Christopher Hipkins has been working round the clock, helping New Zealanders get back into their flood-wrecked homes. So he might be muttering “Give me a break”.
It’s true of course that before Christmas the government did circulate its response to the agricultural industry’s scheme (“ much derided”, says Greenpeace) known as He Waka Eke Noa.
That, according to Greenpeace,
“… looked like giving Aotearoa’s largest emitter – Big Dairy – a free pass.
“A final decision was expected to be confirmed by the Cabinet early this year.”
Hopefully Chris Hipkins had thrown it in the bin, Rose said. He Waka Eke Noa was an industry partnership, and as such was set up to fail from the beginning.
“Every sign we’ve seen so far is that it will indeed fail the climate, New Zealanders and future generations,” Rose says.
“The plan foreshadowed in December includes ‘the lowest possible price’ on industrial agricultural emissions – which are half of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gasses.
“He Waka Eke Noa fails to reduce dairy industry emissions in particular, even though dairy cattle make up a quarter of the country’s total emissions.The dairy industry is exempt from the Emissions Trading Scheme, and the draft He Waka Eke Noa plan rewards with incentives more than it levies the industry. It’s more a greenwashing tool than a plan for action on climate,” says Rose.
“We’ve suffered back-to-back climate disasters here in Te Ika-a-Māui this year, so if the government now fails to protect people from the industry most responsible for driving climate change, there will be some very angry voters in Aotearoa.
“Climate concern is a very live issue, climate strikes are taking place in nine centres and the latest IPSOS poll shows that concern about climate change is at an all-time high.”
The government’s credibility on climate was at stake in the He Waka Eke Noa decision, Rose insisted.
“This will be a climate election – every child deserves a safe and stable climate.
“History will judge this government on its imminent decisions on industrial dairy in He Waka Eke Noa. At a time when climate change devastation is in the spotlight, the government must throw He Waka Eke Noa in the bin. It was never fit for purpose because it lets the country’s worst polluters off the hook, and certainly isn’t fit for purpose now.”
As Point of Order sees it, the government is sensibly taking its time on the move to cut agricultural emissions. In the wake of cyclone devastation calling for the expenditure of billions of dollars in recovery work, a move to cut export earnings — dairy is NZ’s biggest export industry — doesn’t make much sense, particularly if one accepts that NZ’s emissions amount to less than 0.5% of the global total.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
It’s true of course that before Christmas the government did circulate its response to the agricultural industry’s scheme (“ much derided”, says Greenpeace) known as He Waka Eke Noa.
That, according to Greenpeace,
“… looked like giving Aotearoa’s largest emitter – Big Dairy – a free pass.
“A final decision was expected to be confirmed by the Cabinet early this year.”
Hopefully Chris Hipkins had thrown it in the bin, Rose said. He Waka Eke Noa was an industry partnership, and as such was set up to fail from the beginning.
“Every sign we’ve seen so far is that it will indeed fail the climate, New Zealanders and future generations,” Rose says.
“The plan foreshadowed in December includes ‘the lowest possible price’ on industrial agricultural emissions – which are half of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gasses.
“He Waka Eke Noa fails to reduce dairy industry emissions in particular, even though dairy cattle make up a quarter of the country’s total emissions.The dairy industry is exempt from the Emissions Trading Scheme, and the draft He Waka Eke Noa plan rewards with incentives more than it levies the industry. It’s more a greenwashing tool than a plan for action on climate,” says Rose.
“We’ve suffered back-to-back climate disasters here in Te Ika-a-Māui this year, so if the government now fails to protect people from the industry most responsible for driving climate change, there will be some very angry voters in Aotearoa.
“Climate concern is a very live issue, climate strikes are taking place in nine centres and the latest IPSOS poll shows that concern about climate change is at an all-time high.”
The government’s credibility on climate was at stake in the He Waka Eke Noa decision, Rose insisted.
“This will be a climate election – every child deserves a safe and stable climate.
“History will judge this government on its imminent decisions on industrial dairy in He Waka Eke Noa. At a time when climate change devastation is in the spotlight, the government must throw He Waka Eke Noa in the bin. It was never fit for purpose because it lets the country’s worst polluters off the hook, and certainly isn’t fit for purpose now.”
As Point of Order sees it, the government is sensibly taking its time on the move to cut agricultural emissions. In the wake of cyclone devastation calling for the expenditure of billions of dollars in recovery work, a move to cut export earnings — dairy is NZ’s biggest export industry — doesn’t make much sense, particularly if one accepts that NZ’s emissions amount to less than 0.5% of the global total.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
2 comments:
Doesn't make much sense in any event to cut food production from one of the world's more efficient producers. Also, didn't the Paris Accord specifically exclude food production? This sort of nonsense does Greenpeace no credit. They need to pull their heads in.
Green peace NZ is run by an ex member of the Australian Communist Party, we need to be very careful what we believe that they tell us.
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