Press release - August 26, 2008
Greenpeace has welcomed the Green’s support for the emissions trading scheme (ETS), saying the party has secured some positive measures.
"We're obviously disappointed that the Labour-led Government is
determined to continue subsidising the agriculture sector with
taxpayer's money. It is, after all, the sector responsible for half
of New Zealand's emissions," said Greenpeace Senior Climate
Campaigner Simon Boxer.
"But improvements to the legislation and a $1billion package of
energy efficiency and conservation measures are real steps
forward.
"The Green's support brings the ETS one step closer to becoming
law, at which point political parties can focus on developing the
additional measures needed for New Zealand to make a credible
contribution to tackling climate change.
"The risk is that New Zealand introduces the scheme, then sits
back and feels the job's done. An ETS is only a small first step
and needs to be backed up by other measures to ensure we actually
reduce emissions, such as a strong moratorium on new fossil fuel
generation and a halt to large scale forest conversion for
dairying.
"We'll continue to campaign against the massive subsidy to the
agriculture sector under the ETS ($1.3 billion up until 2013), and
push for options to reduce emissions from agriculture outside of
the scheme. Greenpeace welcomes any government investment to this
effect."
Mr Boxer said to maintain any kind of credibility on the world
stage and to safeguard its clean green brand, New Zealand needed to
set a domestic emission reduction target of 30 per cent by
2020.
Other contacts: Simon Boxer – Greenpeace Senior Climate Campaigner – 021905579
Kathy Cumming – Greenpeace Communications – 021 495 216
Exp. contact date: 2009-02-06 00:00:00