Tuesday, December 06, 2011



Climate change: Shameful

The world is currently meeting in Durban, South Africa, for talks on the future of the Kyoto Protocol. Unfortunately New Zealand is already distinguishing itself as a roadblock to negotiations:

The New Zealand Government is jeopardising its good name in international negotiations at this fortnight's United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban. It has been identified as one of a small number of States stalling progress in forming an international climate agreement. Other parties have privately condemned its conduct and predict it could risk the possibility of a credible outcome.

"Negotiators and observers have been telling us that New Zealand is taking an exceptionally irresponsible position in the talks", says Rachel Dobric of the New Zealand Youth Delegation.

And we've already won a silver fossil of the day as a result:
The 2nd place Fossil goes to New Zealand for proposing the most Flexible Mechanism imaginable with no oversight or review. Bring on the wild west. They want to be able to use any market mechanisms they wish with absolutely no oversight or international review! There would be no way to ensure that the units from one mechanism have not been sold two or three times to another such mechanism. This would likely unleash a wild west carbon market with double or triple counting of offsets and a likely increase of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
These are a perfect example of how under National we have transformed from a climate change leader into a villain, from a country trying to do something about the problem to a country actively disrupting negotiations in an effort to prevent there from being a solution. But its a dangerous path to take. As a small country, we depend on our international reputation and our mana. And National is systematically trashing both in an effort to protect the unsustainable profits of its farmers and cronies.