NZCPR Newsletter: Unhinged Obsession

Climate change represents a major threat to New Zealand – but not because of the emissions produced by cows and sheep or from driving cars to the shops. The biggest threat comes from the unhinged obsession of climate fanatics – including New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – who are trying to force damaging policies onto the country that will have zero impact on the climate but will devastate the fundamentals of our economy.

First, some background.

Sterling Burnett: Paris Panic - Governments Fail to Meet Their Climate Commitments

Political leaders and media personalities are fond of saying climate change poses an existential threat to humans and the planet. The weight of scientific evidence doesn’t support this oft-made claim, and national governments around the globe seem to acknowledge this by their actions.

Despite what is reported almost daily in the mainstream media, data from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show no increase in extreme weather events as the Earth has modestly warmed over the past 150 years. In fact, the IPCC and NOAA data show cases of extreme cold spells, droughts, floods, heat waves, hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires have all declined modestly or remained relatively stable since the late 1870s.

Despite these irrefutable facts, leaders from nations around the world have signed multiple international agreements, the latest being the 2015 Paris climate agreement, intended to avert a supposedly pending climate disaster.

Matt Burgess: The Climate Commission’s transparency problem

It is now three weeks and three days since the Climate Change Commission extended the submissions deadline for its draft emissions budgets by two weeks.

The extension was prompted by concerns about the Commission’s refusal to release selected data from its models.

The extension pushed the submissions deadline just beyond four weeks, the required turnaround time under the Official Information Act (OIA). We immediately lodged an OIA request with the Commission for “all data on the marginal abatement costs of electric vehicles”. The Commission’s response is due in five days.

Our request aims to solve an enduring mystery behind the centrepiece of the Commission’s emissions strategy, their proposed ban of petrol and diesel light vehicle imports from 2032. Under the Commission’s plan, only electric vehicles (EVs) will be imported after that date.