Back in September, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts shocked us by suggesting that New Zealand could refuse to meet its international commitments under the Paris Agreement. Now Forestry Minister Todd McClay has echoed that position:
Minister for Agriculture and Forestry Todd McClay says the Government won't be buying carbon credits overseas to meet the Government's 2030 climate targets.McClay said that the government has a plan to meet the target without using overseas mitigation, but won't say what it is. Which is as much as admitting that there isn't one. National's upcoming Emissions Reduction Plan certainly won't do it, given that they've ripped up virtually all existing measures to reduce emissions. So what's left? Getting Lester Levy in to cook the books with an accounting fantasy of "blue carbon"? Or are they just hoping for another pandemic - or an outbreak of foot and mouth - to save them?According to the latest calculations the Government would be more than 90 million tonnes - over a year's worth of the whole country's greenhouse gases - short of meeting its international promises under the Paris Agreement target if it doesn't buy help from overseas but the Minister repeatedly told Morning Report spending money overseas was off the cards.
"No we don't have to go and buy credits overseas to meet our obligations and we're working very hard to make sure we don't.
"The idea of sending billions overseas is not palatable to anybody in New Zealand."
Meanwhile, McClay is also Trade Minister, and you'd expect him to have some idea of what the consequences are for failing to meet our Paris commitments. Not least: trade sanctions from the EU (which should target our biggest polluters, the dairy industry). But maybe he's also hoping that it'll all happen on someone else's watch, leaving National to complain from the sidelines while better politicians clean up their mess?
