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Greens want Key climate u-turn on the ice

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Greens call for climate u-turn

3News NZ

John Key

John Key

The Green Party says Prime Minister John Key's upcoming visit to Antarctica ideally should signal a change in Government climate change policy.

Mr Key will fly to Antarctica on Thursday, and his four-day visit will "provide an opportunity to see first-hand the issues facing Antarctica and the Southern Ocean".

The visit is aimed at promoting New Zealand's scientific research on the ice and also the close links with the United States there.

Green Party climate change spokesman Kennedy Graham agrees Mr Key needs to look at issues first hand "so he can recognise the magnitude and imminence of climate change trend".

In 2005, Mr Key told Parliament he was suspicious about global warming claims and the Kyoto Protocol was "a complete and utter hoax".

"He was badly behind the play. He and his government have done nothing to make things better in the last couple of years of climate change policy," Dr Graham told NZ Newswire.

Perhaps optimistically, he said Mr Key should use his visit as a chance for a spectacular turnaround in policy.

"He can go down and symbolically stand on the ice, acknowledge his mistake of 2005, acknowledge the severity of the threat right now and undertake to change New Zealand's climate change policy.

"You don't have to go down to the ice to listen to the scientists because the scientists have been speaking as a global community... the overwhelming consensus for the last 20 years is that it has been a threat."

Last year the Government decided it would not sign up for the second commitment period of Kyoto.

It also made changes to the emissions trading scheme which delayed the introduction of some industry sectors to the polluter-pays regime and giving agriculture an indefinite reprieve.

"That is fundamentally wrong. This is the critical decade. The 2020s will be the decade of consequences, not the decade of the causal effect," Dr Graham said.

NZN

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Comments

17/01/2013 1:34:40 p.m.

Mike wrote:

Lets say the contaminant is radiation, or some chemical. Kathy, your saying that NZ needs to be 18x cleaner to be as clean as Germany! If everyone adopted German emision levels per sq km, then god help the planet!

Thats garbage to claim that Germany is cleaner because you dont use any quality measure like air quality.

What would you do with Chenobol? Send in people to lower the per capita radiation by spreading leathal doses around? Would you send people to live in a chemical dump to claim it was cleaner? Your the one with your head up your backside who wont use any fair measure that treats ALL the world the same. NZ shouldn't have to abide by emissions 18x tougher than Germanies under the pro-pulluters Kyoto Protocol. Germany has one of the highest emmision in the world, is the most able to cut back in emmisions yet wont do so. Why? Becuase those emissions give it a trade edge and making the rest of the world pay for emissions when germany doesn't protects German trade worth trillions. Its all about the money of the heavy polluters like Germany.

NZ is clean and green in comparison to almost any country in the world if use some emiision per sq km, or parts per million or any other quantive measure.

Take melamine in milk. if 10 parts per million considered okay, that measure should apply to ALL, not have 10 parts per million okay for one country (like NZ), and 180 parts per million (which will kill off babies) okay for another country (like Germany).

17/01/2013 9:35:59 a.m.

Kathy wrote:

NO Mike.. tonnage... show us the figures for the number of tonnes Chine releases each year. Percentage wise even... China releases 25 percent of all carbon emissions... fully 1/4. Just because you have found a way to misuse statistics, China releases 25 percent of all carbon emissions per year.

16/01/2013 11:28:39 p.m.

Mike wrote:

China 9640821 sq km and est 2011 emissions were 9700000 thousand tonne or 1006 tonne per sq km.

Germany 357021 sq km and est 2011 emission of 810000 thousand tonne or 2268 tonne per sq km.

Now to anyone who can tell their backside form their elbow - this shows Germany is a worse polluter per sq km than China. Kyoto Protocol protects Germanies right to pollute at the expense of less polluters like polluting China and cleaner NZ.

Does China have some pollution problems in its cities? Yes. But on average it is still cleaner in carbon emmissions than Germany by a factor of over 2:1!

What about NZ? 268680 sq km and last figure listed 33095 thousand tonne gives 123 tonne per sq km. Take the German figure, and divide by the NZ figure and we get NZ over 18x cleaner in carbon emmissions than Germany! Why is Germany allowed to pollute more than NZ? Oh, it helped hijack Kyoto Protocol with other heavy carbon polluters for just that purpose as it was profitable to do so!

16/01/2013 10:10:05 p.m.

Katrina wrote:

Why should we sign up to Kyoto? It obviously is not working. Come up with something new. What is the point though with countries like China not caring about the health of it's own people let alone the health of the planet

16/01/2013 9:19:16 p.m.

Peter Blackwood wrote:

I some one trying too say that his lordship is going down to the Antarctica for his second trip,Whipty doo.I went down there 4 times when I was a engineer on the Icebreaker Endeavour,we had to push our way through the ice not like the opportunist that is all show and blow and with out any go,who will fly down there again too the snow.Just for more photo show.

16/01/2013 8:36:36 p.m.

LBV wrote:

The way I see it, the politics are irrelevent. I am not a supporter of the Greens or National. Weather you believe in Climate Change or not, it makes sense to take care of your environment, minimise waste and support biodiversity. Small links in the environment can add up to big changes down the line. Too many mistakes now may mean that we can't fix it later on. NZ prides itself on being 100% pure and many people would like to think about that, however the truth is far from it. It makes good sense for farmers to plant along waterways, for the country to move towards solar power, composting toilets and rail yet we don't. The Kyoto Protocol won't work because the two most influential powers aren't in it - China and America. America won't because of the business lobby. Money comes before everything. The really ironic thing is that the middle and upper class are really in the best position to make the change to sustainable living. An au tv show 'Eco House Challenge' showed this - the consumerist family sailed through, once they got over the complaining.

16/01/2013 8:30:51 p.m.

Kathy wrote:

Yet wasnt the biggest story last week how toxic the air was in china and how it exceeded safe limits to breathe and how China released more carbon dioxide into the air per tonne than any other country in the world with germany being far down the list Mike?. Your facts like your 45 cent breakfast that changes between stories to vary between 45 and 85 cents are unbelievable.

16/01/2013 6:02:33 p.m.

Mike wrote:

@ Joe

Kyoto procol is all about protecting the carbon polluters like Germany. Why not mention Germany as its all about propping up their right to pollute at the expense of cleaner countries like NZ. Oh wait, the green receive overseas funding for this, and dont want to be open about it, or protect the enviroment from the worst enviromental carbon polluters like Germany, as the polluters bought the Greens with funding.

Look around the world, and the higher population density 1st world nations have the most carbon pollution per sq km, and the most protected under Kyoto Protocol. Those same 1st world countries can most afford to cut back emmissions. Yes it is all about the money, but not the money the enviromentalists claim.

16/01/2013 4:13:34 p.m.

Aaron Cross wrote:

Hes going down there to see what mining potential the last place on earth to be pillaged has, that's all. As a nuclear uranium mine shareholder, hes always keen to get his snout in the environmental vandalism trough.

16/01/2013 1:40:04 p.m.

Joe wrote:

@ Mike: Germany???? Who mentioned Germany? The issue is that John Key does not care one iota about the environment. He is going to Antarctica simply as a marketing exercise.