New Zealand got Fossil of the Day at the UN climate talks in Bangkok today after revealing that the Government’s 10% to 20% target is actually a nothing to 20% target. The Government’s Climate Change ambassador Adrian Macey admitted as much yesterday.
It’s not actually Ambassador Macey’s fault that New Zealand got this dubious award. It’s just another example of why the Government needs to give negotiators like him a new mandate to stand up for the planet, rather than instructing them to protect the interests of New Zealand’s big polluters.
The reason New Zealand’s negotiators are taking a hard line on conditions is simple. The Government is trying to avoid the problems New Zealand faces in having such a hopeless climate change policy.
With an emissions trading scheme that will encourage New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution to increase, New Zealand will have to rely on forest planting and buying offshore credits to meet its international climate change commitments. That’s why New Zealand’s conditions relate to forestry and international carbon markets (where governments buy credits to allow businesses, and each of us, to pollute). Without those conditions, the Government would have to tell polluters to cut back on their pollution, something it’s keen to avoid.