The Zero Carbon Bill is an opportunity for New Zealand to
lead the world on smart agricultural emissions policy. James Shaw has regularly
touted his wish to see our country as international leaders on climate change
and is trying to break new ground by bringing biological emissions into the ETS.
To be leaders however, we must look forward and not backwards.
The issues with the current Global Warming Potential (GWP)
accounting system for methane are now widely publicised and understood. Anyone
who cares to investigate the origins of GWP accounting will find it was
actually created by a group of climate scientists to demonstrate the flaws in
comparing short and long-lived greenhouse gases. To their surprise, the IPCC
saw things differently and adopted it as the international standard. So
although GWP is now the accepted way to compare different GHG emissions, people
should not be fooled into thinking it got there on scientific merit.
