Press release - August 21, 2008
Despite shortcomings, it is imperative that New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) is passed into law this parliamentary term, says Greenpeace.
"We've heard today that the Green Party has made some gains in
negotiations with the government, although not every battle to
strengthen the scheme has been won," said Greenpeace Senior Climate
Campaigner Simon Boxer.
"Obviously Greenpeace is very disappointed that agriculture is
still excluded from the scheme until 2013, and that the government
is unwilling to address skyrocketing emissions in this sector, but
overall the most important thing is that the scheme passes into
law.
"This is very much a case of something being better than
nothing," said Boxer. "The climate is in crisis, and New Zealand
has virtually no policy in place to start addressing it. The ETS is
only the first step towards New Zealand playing its part
internationally.
"The National Party's calls for the scheme to be delayed and for
the scheme to be intensity based are irresponsible and must be
ignored. They are based on nothing more than the bleating of a core
group of big polluting businesses. National's proposals for the ETS
would render it unworthy of the paper it's written on.
"Both in terms of climate, and in the current geo-political
environment, New Zealand cannot afford to end this year having made
no progress on climate policy."
Boxer said it appeared that some significant gains had been made
during negotiations in terms of energy efficiency and conservation,
both of which were a crucial part of tackling climate change.
Greenpeace is campaigning for agriculture to be included in the
ETS by 2010, and for New Zealand to set a domestic emissions
reduction target of 30 per cent by 2020.
Other contacts:
Contact: Simon Boxer – Greenpeace Senior Climate Campaigner – 021 905579
Kathy Cumming – Greenpeace Climate Communications – 021 495 216