NZ ‘can help save the world’

''Being a developed country confers greater responsibility.'' Climate Change Minister James Shaw

Being small does not absolve New Zealand of responsibility when it comes to climate change.

That was the message of Climate Change Minister James Shaw when he took to the world stage to talk about the new Government’s change in tack when it comes to lowering emissions.

‘‘Being small does not absolve us of responsibility. On the contrary, being a developed country confers greater responsibility,’’ Shaw said to the COP23 climate change summit in Germany.

New Zealand’s emissions accounted for less than 1 per cent of the global total.

But adding up all the countries that contributed 1 per cent or less of global emissions, resulted in almost a quarter of the world’s total emissions, he said.

‘‘If all the small emitters, like New Zealand, act faster, go further, then together we can make as much of a difference as any of the largest emitters in the world,’’ he said. ‘‘New Zealand is a small part of the world, and we are a remote part of the world, but we are still a part of the world. It is in our interest to help save it.’’

Shaw began his speech talking about former Labour prime minister David Lange.

‘‘A little over 30 years ago, a New Zealand prime minister, David Lange, declared that nuclear weapons were morally indefensible and that we would no longer play any part in the arms race that threatened to extinguish all life on Earth. ‘‘New Zealand declared ourselves to be a nuclear-free nation ... our new Government took office just 21 days days ago and our new prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has already declared that climate change is the nuclear-free moment of our generation.’’

And after the Labour-led Government took power, it promised to become a net zero-emission economy by 2050.

When New Zealand was at its best, it took the lead on important issues, Shaw said.

‘‘We were the first country where women won the right to vote. We were around the table at the formation of the United Nations. And we became a nuclear-free nation in the face of the Cold War’s deadly logic.’’

Commitment to slowing, or reducing, the effects of climate change had to be total, Shaw said.

‘‘As we here well know, most of the time politics is the art of compromise. It’s about negotiation. You come to an arrangement. You meet each other halfway.

‘‘But you can’t negotiate with the climate itself. Ask the citizens of Houston if Hurricane Harvey would meet them halfway. Ask the people of Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, or Kiribati, or Tokelau, how compromising is the rising sea?’’

Shaw listed the Government’s environmental and climate change policies, including the promise to establish an independent Climate Commission to set five-yearly carbon budgets and a Green Investment Fund to direct investment towards low-emissions industries.

The Government also planned to achieve 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2035, and for the Government’s own car fleet to be electric by 2025. He also mentioned the plan to plant 1 billion trees over the next 10 years.

Becoming a net zero-emissions economy by 2050 was not going to be easy, he said.

‘‘But as President John F Kennedy of the United States said about another difficult goal, we choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.’’

Shaw travelled to Germany with Pacific People’s Minister William Sio. The pair met the Pope on the way, along with others from the Pacific Leaders Forum to help raise the profile of the effects of climate change in the Pacific.

There was a heavy focus on the Pacific at this year’s UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or COP23, with Fiji leading the conference. The UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement were extended to include Tokelau – a territory of New Zealand – which would mean greater focus on the Pacific island’s vulnerability to climate change.