• Full Story

NZ 'dropping ball' - environment commissioner

Email
Print

NZ 'dropping ball' - enviro commissioner

3News NZ

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright is going against the Government's opinion that New Zealand's record isn't too bad

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright is going against the Government's opinion that New Zealand's record isn't too bad

Successive governments have "dropped the ball" on the environment and New Zealand's economic future will be harmed unless progress is made, parliament's watchdog says.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright is going against the Government's opinion that New Zealand's record isn't too bad.

She's welcoming a World Wildlife Fund report which says the country hasn't met any of the climate change commitments it agreed to at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.

"New Zealand's economy is strongly reliant on our 'clean and green' image and our environmental record will only become economically more important in the future," she said.

"We are dropping the ball on the environment, this is a failure of successive governments and bodes badly not just for the future of our environment but for the future of our economy."

Prime Minister John Key doesn't believe other countries are meeting their climate change obligations any better than New Zealand.

"I think New Zealand's record is pretty good," he said yesterday.

"I'd be interested to read the reports on other countries - it's hard to believe they're doing better than New Zealand."

The report says New Zealand hasn't met any of its targets during the last 20 years and there's been a 20 percent rise in emissions and a quadrupling in the number of threatened species.

NZN

Post a Comment

Before commenting, please take the time to read our moderation guide


(Won't be published)



Comments

30/05/2012 8:06:30 a.m.

Richard wrote:

G Emeny is right,1080 is an indiscriminate killer. Unfortunately it also reflects the Labour, National and Green's attitude to our environment and our way of life ie, stuff the people that pay for their extravagant lifestyle.

29/05/2012 8:46:57 p.m.

G Emeny wrote:

NZ would be in a far better state if it stopped dumping 1080 poison on its environment. 1080 poison kills every thing from the ground up that breaths air

29/05/2012 6:37:17 p.m.

Chargone wrote:

improving the environment is not completely incompatible with improving the economy and providing jobs. that said, both are incompatible with the current mindset of 'maximum profits at maximum speed for the few at the top' and the obsession with efficiency for efficiency's sake. simple fact if you want the economy ticking over better: pay the workers more. particularly the middle classes, but the 'lower' classes are barely less important for this (and if they're more numerous, not less important at all). this leads to them having more money to spend on stuff, increasing demand, increasing opportunity for new business, increasing sales, increasing profit... gets the money moving through the system which gets the economy going again. here's the important bit though: you Cannot raise prices to compensate for the increased wages/salaries. if you do, you just drive inflation. (in theory, if this applies across the board, the extra sales make up the gap and then some.)

29/05/2012 10:32:59 a.m.

carole kilincli wrote:

I question these countries that are better equipt than New Zealand environment? Birds are the worst carriers so we should be looking at this side of things as well the migrants, visitors that get in without being detected. Otherwise I think the country has done well to get this far unlike other countries that I know of!

29/05/2012 10:26:59 a.m.

Ruru wrote:

Well! we all know that money is so much more important than life itself.

29/05/2012 10:14:45 a.m.

dave wrote:

I am more worried about the quality of our water ways...some of them are in a terrible way and people are acting too slow to resolve this. A big stick needs to be pointed at councils and farmers for not taking enough action.

29/05/2012 10:05:09 a.m.

Evan wrote:

I agree that we are doing "not too bad". Unlike pressure groups which can focus on one aspect, the government has to weigh up all aspects, in this case jobs versus the environment. Like it or not, but the emerging powerhouses in the world are the ones saying "the environment can wait, we have an economy to build so we can feed our people". In many ways Australia comes into that category, but a lot of the people decrying the government's record on the environment are those lambasting it for the mass immigration to Australia, especially to jobs involved with the mining industry. However, I get the impression that quite a few environmentalists would probably like everyone in New Zealand to emigrate and leave the country to revert to its natural state, but that won't happen. So as the government says we aren't doing too bad, although there is room for some improvement.

29/05/2012 9:58:49 a.m.

Michelle Walker wrote:

Why do we always have to follow other countries with National in the big seat, why can we not be a leader????