Copenhagen consequences for Wellington
At the end of 2009 the world?s leaders gathered in Copenhagen to discuss ways of averting the planet from the dire consequences of climate change. Labour?s climate change issues spokesperson Charles Chauvel attended the summit and says one outcome is that New Zealanders will pay higher taxes for businesses to continue polluting. Mr Chauvel says this is because the National and Maori Parties and Peter Dunne supported changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme. ?It is wrong, as the Government has enacted, to subsidise from taxes the ability of polluters to continue to pollute for another 90 years.? ?What should happen instead is that we should put a price on emitting greenhouse gases.? Polluters should pay that price,? says Mr Chauvel. He says the Government should use the revenues it gets from requiring polluting businesses to assist people in adjusting to the new prices, and to pay for moving our economy towards lower-emissions. Carbon trading is structured incorrectly under the government's amended ETS, as it ends up being a money-go round from taxpayers to polluters, he says. ?The way to go is to structure an ETS correctly, or to have a carbon tax in place at the right level to motivate moves away from fossil fuel use.? Also important, is promoting decent public transport, renewable electricity generation, biofuels and electric vehicle infrastructure, recycling and returning control to the householder or business-owner of electricity use through technologies like smart metering.? ?These are all areas where we see the current Government in retreat rather than taking the bold steps needed,? says Mr Chauvel. Mana MP Winnie Laban visited Tuvalu, a low lying coral atoll in the Pacific, 20 years ago and has ?seen firsthand evidence of this island sinking?.? ?New Zealand is morally obliged to advocate for the pacific and vulnerable low lying coral atolls at the Copenhagen Climate Change conference as part of New Zealand's representation ?Now, thanks to the National Government, polluters can increase their emissions and continue to pollute for longer at the expense of the Kiwi?taxpayers,? says Mrs Laban. National list MP Katrina Shanks says the Government is committed to doing something about climate change, while balancing environmental responsibilities with economic opportunities. ?We?are going?to Copenhagen with a settled emissions trading scheme on the books, a credible mid-term emissions target, and talented and knowledgeable representation,? she says. Late last month parliament passed a Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill. Mrs Shanks says changes to the?emissions trading scheme?(ETS) are about taking a more ?modest approach? and putting in place a realistic timetable. ?The changes are about making the ETS workable and affordable, so that the New Zealand economy and Kiwi jobs aren't put at risk like they would have been under Labour's scheme.? ?The changes halve the cost of the current ETS for families and households for the next three years by reducing the power price increase from 10 percent to 5 percent and fuel from 7c/l to 3.5c/l. ?They defer agriculture to the more realistic timetable of 2015 and improve the transitional support for the fishing industry,? says Mrs Shanks. The changes more closely align New Zealand?s ETS with what Australia is proposing in its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. Ohariu MP Peter Dunne says he is ?not holding my breath for a definitive outcome?. ?It is foolhardy to think that the steps put in place will not be changed in the years ahead. ?The provisions of our own emissions trading scheme will be reviewed within five years, and I am quite sure there will be changes at that point,? says Mr Dunne.
