Climate change

SOME 328,411 Kiwis believe the many promises being made during the election campaign all depend on restabilising the climate. After key elements of the Climate Consensus Coalition Aotearoa (CCCA) Action Plan were presented to Parliament by Wise Response in midAugust, its support has mushroomed and now represents some 80 organisations with a third of a million members.

The CCCA plan was developed largely because of no real action by New Zealand following the Paris COP21 agreement and carbon emissions continue to rise. Wise Response patron Sir Geoffrey Palmer has described New Zealand’s climate change policy as ‘‘an unholy mess’’.

Key elements of the CCCA plan are: achievement of net zero greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2050; continued crossparty collaboration; consistency with the Te Tiriti o Waitangi; support for a climate change forum; a climate change commission (modelled on Britain’s); and a climate change adaptation and mitigation fund.

The CCCA plan complements the views of other organisations with concerns about climate change. This includes the Labour Party, whose leader, Jacinda Ardern, has referred to it as ‘‘the nuclearfree moment of this generation’’, as well as the Green Party. Understanding the urgency of the situation, both parties have released climate change policies incorporating most of the CCCA’s proposals.

The CCCA plan is consistent with GlobeNZ’s ‘‘Statement of Collaborative Purpose’’, the mayors’ global climate and energy initiative, Local Government leaders climate change declaration, Generation Zero’s proposed zero carbon Act, and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s July report.

Climate change affects every single policy platform at this election. The future security of all New Zealanders is at stake. Given the wide public and political support for urgent action to address climate change, it must be regarded the key issue for voters and of the highest priority on the new government’s agenda.

Sir Alan Mark

Chairman, Wise Response Society,

Dunedin

LABOUR wants New Zealand to be a good world citizen and step up to climate change, but at what cost? Half of our emissions theoretically come from methane, but methane’s effect is swamped by water. So why tax farmers and increase your food costs when methane does nothing and no other country includes it?

China emits more greenhouse gas in two days than New Zealand does in a year. China’s commitment to the Paris accord, like India’s, is to do what it likes until 2030, so why should you have to pay more for your fuel, and everything transported by it, accompanied by loss of international competitiveness and jobs while other countries fill the vacuum?

If all of the signatories to the Paris Accord kept their nonbinding promises, and if the theory was correct, then the effect on global temperatures by 2100 would be a reduction of 0.17degC — who would notice? There are now over 50 papers per month that challenge the claims of the IPCC. It is only a matter of time before the current groupthink is history.

Renewable energy duplicates existing generation. Embrace that, and we, like South Australia, would have highest power prices in the world, as well as power cuts every time the wind stops blowing. The global move to renewables is not due to efficiency, it is due to subsidies, paid for by you, the taxpayer.

In addition, reducing CO2 reduces plants’ ability to make food and produce oxygen. The voters in 2047 would be saying ‘‘how could they be so dumb?’’.

Peter Foster

Waikouaiti