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Exceltium public relations firm, which is run by National-Party
strategist Matthew Hooten, has released a survey into public attitudes
towards the ETS.
Almost 57 per cent of respondents say they think the legislation should pass. 87.4 per cent are willing to act personally or accept costs to reduce the effects of climate change.
“The results of this survey show how out of touch the National Party is on this issue,” said Greenpeace Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid. “New Zealanders believe in climate change and want to see timely action to tackle it and it’s up to our political leaders to make it happen.”
However Ms McDiarmid said the questions to householders about costs were misleading. “The survey makes it sound like householders won’t face these costs if the ETS is not in place. Which is not true. Householders will face even higher costs if the scheme falls over, because they’ll have to pick up the entire Kyoto bill, rather than polluters paying for their own emissions.
“The poll fails to inform respondents of this; instead presenting the ETS as an extra cost, when infact it’s designed to shift the cost burden from taxpayers to polluters.
“The problem is that the ETS is inherently hard to understand and many New Zealanders may not be aware that under it, they’re subsidising big business.”
Ms McDiarmid said this uncertainty and lack of information was demonstrated in the high number of “neutral” responses in the survey.
“This confusion has not been helped by an orchestrated scare campaign by big polluting business, which has wrongly painted New Zealand as a world leader in this area and mislead over costs.”
Greenpeace is calling for the ETS to be strengthened and made fairer so that those doing the polluting pay, rather than ordinary New Zealanders. Greenpeace is also calling for every political party to set an emissions reduction target of 30 per cent by 2020.
Almost 57 per cent of respondents say they think the legislation should pass. 87.4 per cent are willing to act personally or accept costs to reduce the effects of climate change.
“The results of this survey show how out of touch the National Party is on this issue,” said Greenpeace Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid. “New Zealanders believe in climate change and want to see timely action to tackle it and it’s up to our political leaders to make it happen.”
However Ms McDiarmid said the questions to householders about costs were misleading. “The survey makes it sound like householders won’t face these costs if the ETS is not in place. Which is not true. Householders will face even higher costs if the scheme falls over, because they’ll have to pick up the entire Kyoto bill, rather than polluters paying for their own emissions.
“The poll fails to inform respondents of this; instead presenting the ETS as an extra cost, when infact it’s designed to shift the cost burden from taxpayers to polluters.
“The problem is that the ETS is inherently hard to understand and many New Zealanders may not be aware that under it, they’re subsidising big business.”
Ms McDiarmid said this uncertainty and lack of information was demonstrated in the high number of “neutral” responses in the survey.
“This confusion has not been helped by an orchestrated scare campaign by big polluting business, which has wrongly painted New Zealand as a world leader in this area and mislead over costs.”
Greenpeace is calling for the ETS to be strengthened and made fairer so that those doing the polluting pay, rather than ordinary New Zealanders. Greenpeace is also calling for every political party to set an emissions reduction target of 30 per cent by 2020.
Contact information
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Bunny McDiarmid– Greenpeace Executive Director – 021838183
Kathy Cumming – Greenpeace Climate Communications – 021 495216
