Questions about the National Government\u2019s fitness to lead on climate issues are being raised as Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett prepares to sign the Paris climate agreement on behalf of New Zealand tomorrow. <\/p>\n
Bennett is currently in New York, where she will sign the document and formally commit New Zealand to lowering its pollution emissions by 11% of what they were in 1990, by 2030.<\/p>\n
But Greenpeace climate campaigner, Simon Boxer, says the signing is \u201cnothing but a PR stunt\u201d for the National Government, because it has no real plans to lower pollution.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil Paula Bennett does something real, like enforce the shutdown of New Zealand\u2019s last remaining coal burners at Huntly Power Station, then jetting off around the world to sign a piece of paper is largely meaningless,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Last August, Huntly\u2019s owner, Genesis Energy, announced it would be closing the coal part of the power plant by the end of 2018, saying New Zealand didn\u2019t need it and it was too expensive to run.<\/p>\n
But three months ago it was revealed that several of New Zealand\u2019s electricity providers, including Meridian Energy, had been meeting with Genesis Energy to find a way to keep the coal units running.<\/p>\n
Boxer says it’s time to “get real”.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure the National Government would say Huntly\u2019s coal burners aren\u2019t their problem. But we\u2019re talking about a fight to keep the dirtiest fuel in the world alive in New Zealand in 2016 – the Government can\u2019t wash their hands of this,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe extent of National\u2019s climate change action plan is to keep drilling, fracking and burning coal, whilst offsetting our pollution by trading shonky carbon credits bought from organised crime gangs in Russia. It\u2019s a complete sham.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, a report from the Morgan Foundation revealed the NZ Government has been allowing businesses to buy fraudulent carbon credits from Russia and the Ukraine in order to \u2018offset\u2019 their emissions.<\/p>\n
The countries use loopholes in international rules to create millions of false carbon credits that have no environmental benefit, and then sell them at bargain rates to the world market.<\/p>\n
Boxer says it\u2019s just another in a long line of examples of the National Government \u201cruining our international reputation\u201d when it comes to the climate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf John Key was sincere about the promises he made in Paris, he would not allow further expansion of fossil fuels and he would invest in clean energy like wind and solar.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut under the National Government, our emissions have actually increased.<\/p>\n
\u201cKey has had almost eight years to cut pollution, and in that time he’s failed to introduce a single piece of law to reduce climate pollution. It\u2019s going to cost our economy billions in the future. Our communities are going to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Questions about the National Government\u2019s fitness to lead on climate issues are being raised as Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett prepares to sign the Paris climate agreement on behalf of New Zealand tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n