But several speakers at the conference gave good reasons for sticking with it.
One of those was reputational risk. We’re a country that is trusted to do what we say we’ll do, pulling out of the accord would undermine that.
Another was the damage to trade.
One speaker explained that negotiators take a considerable amount of time nutting out trade deals before the deals are put to the politicians. Some 80% to 90% of questions from them are about the environment in general and climate change in particular and that is why sticking to the Accord is included in free trade deals.
That said, we should do everything possible to address the Accord’s shortcomings.
The main one is that the clause stating that no measures to counteract climate change should come at the expense of food production doesn’t seem to apply to us.
It shouldn’t matter where food is produced when the world needs it, especially if the food is high quality, as ours is, and has a low carbon footprint, as ours does.
NZ First’s and Act’s policies to pull out of the Accord will win them votes but this is a case of good politics not being good policy.
We can’t pull out of the Accord – yet.
I think that in time the its shortcomings will be so obvious that it will either be renegotiated or collapse. Until then we have to stick with it.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
Another was the damage to trade.
One speaker explained that negotiators take a considerable amount of time nutting out trade deals before the deals are put to the politicians. Some 80% to 90% of questions from them are about the environment in general and climate change in particular and that is why sticking to the Accord is included in free trade deals.
That said, we should do everything possible to address the Accord’s shortcomings.
The main one is that the clause stating that no measures to counteract climate change should come at the expense of food production doesn’t seem to apply to us.
It shouldn’t matter where food is produced when the world needs it, especially if the food is high quality, as ours is, and has a low carbon footprint, as ours does.
NZ First’s and Act’s policies to pull out of the Accord will win them votes but this is a case of good politics not being good policy.
We can’t pull out of the Accord – yet.
I think that in time the its shortcomings will be so obvious that it will either be renegotiated or collapse. Until then we have to stick with it.
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
We also can’t sacrifice our country on the altar of good intentions. While trade negotiators might see climate related policies as an important factor- their own citizens don’t care when they’re hungry, just like nz’ers.
If people really cared then processed food manufacturers would have gone out of business already.
Go woke go broke
Or in nzs case - let’s just nail ourselves to the climate cross so we can get a good view of the rest of the world carrying on .
How much it would cost to pull out now versus how much it will cost us in loss of reputation, hence trade, is anyone’s guess. We can’t afford to keep propping up something that achieves nothing.
Cannot agree with this. NZ needs to move fast to set us up for energy security in the coming years. No energy = no economy.
Ele, where else are others going to get goods produced in a cleaner environment ?
The climate trade accords are faux tariffs.
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