Climate scientists have strongly attacked the New Zealand Government’s decision not sign up to phase two of the Kyoto Protocol. Australia has committed to join a second phase but New Zealand will opt out and instead make voluntary pledges under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Source: Radio New Zealand
This country will remain a full member of the Kyoto Protocol though it will not face financial penalties if it exceeds emissions targets when the first commitment period finishes at the end of this year.
Environmental economist Ralph Chapman who was involved in the Kyoto negotiations said that moving to the Framework Convention means New Zealand is no longer under a legally binding obligation to reduce emissions.
“The Framework Convention is looser, it’s more voluntary, and that’s what people are worried about – that at a time when the climate change problem is getting worse … New Zealand’s going the other way.”
NIWA’s former chief climate researcher and a past president of the New Zealand Association of Scientists James Renwick says New Zealand is not doing its fair share in the fight against climate change.
He says the Emissions Trading Scheme has been emasculated to the point of being completely useless.
“It sends a very poor signal internationally and it just indicates the Government isn’t serious.”
However Climate Change Minister Tim Groser has said 85% of global carbon emissions come from countries that have not signed the protocol and the future is in the common space.
He said the next step would be to set a formal target for New Zealand future emissions through to 2020. Though the Government’s move breaks ranks with Australia, it aligns New Zealand with other major economies such as the United States, Japan, China, India and Russia.
The Kyoto Forestry Association said the Government has pulled the rug from under investors who have sunk many millions of dollars into forestry on the basis that it was earning carbon credits and the result will be deforestation on a large scale.
