Posts by Kennedy Graham

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  Black milestone in climate change reached - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  A black milestone in climate change history was reached over the weekend. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the key ingredient in global warming, hit 400 parts per million of the air in our atmosphere, up from 280 ppm in the mid-18th century when the Industrial Revolution kicked in.  Internationally, we are rushing headlong towards disaster – [...] read more
  May 13, 2013 2:25 pm - 135 Comments
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  “What Does It Take” … to extract climate change action from this Government? - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Yesterday the World Met. Organization released its annual ‘Statement on the Status of the Global Climate’. The report, which investigates the major climate & weather events of the past year, found 2012 to be the 27th consecutive year with above average global temperatures. Global average temperature in 2012 was 0.45⁰C warmer than the 1961-90 long-term [...] read more
  May 6, 2013 4:57 pm - 130 Comments
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  Green activist reportedly killed in Pakistan - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  In some parts of the world, the task of standing up for Green values can be dangerous. It was with the deepest sadness that I was advised about the tragic killing of a Green party activist in Pakistan. According to news reports from the Global Greens, a member of the Pakistan Green Party, Mr Shahnawaz [...] read more
  May 3, 2013 9:27 am - 4 Comments
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  NZ (sort of) leaves Afghanistan - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  New Zealand’s provincial reconstruction team are finally on their way back home nearly ten years after being deployed to Afghanistan.  Welcome back. Your work and efforts are widely acknowledged. Historically, Afghanistan has proved to be an easy place to deploy for foreign armies and a difficult one to get out of, so the news that [...] read more
  April 5, 2013 10:48 am - 2 Comments
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  Closing the gap: Australia vs. NZ on climate change - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The Australian Climate Commission have released a report ‘The Critical Decade: Extreme Weather’. Throughout the authors are unequivocal and forthright about the reality of the effects of climate change on Australia. Australia is already experiencing, and is going to experience, extreme weather events more often – because of human-induced (‘anthropogenic’) climate change. There is no [...] read more
  April 4, 2013 1:22 pm - 56 Comments
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  Israel arrests Palestinian lawmakers - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Recent actions by Israel show a concerning disregard for the fundamentals of international law. Coming on top of the air raid on Syria, Israel have now carried out a sweeping series of raids, resulting in the arrest of around a number of Palestinians including three members of the Parliament. The arrests are targeting members of [...] read more
  February 7, 2013 9:04 am - 8 Comments
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  In preparation for Doha: Assessing New Zealand on Climate Change - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  With the 18th UN climate change conference under way, every country will have its climate change policy under scrutiny.  This blog sets out where New Zealand stands. Four criteria are relevant to assessing a country’s performance. How has it done with emissions record from 1990 to 2012? What targets has it announced for 2020 and [...] read more
  November 29, 2012 1:29 pm - 26 Comments
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  “As predictable as a Tui billboard ad…..” Mr Groser’s characterisation of his climate change policy - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The 18th UN annual climate change conference commenced on Monday.  I’ll be attending the 2nd week, and will blog from there about its dynamics and outcome. Meanwhile the Key Government, with breath-taking timing, has taken two decisions in the run-up to Doha, both resulting, intentionally or otherwise, in seriously weakening New Zealand’s climate change credentials [...] read more
  November 28, 2012 10:45 am - 40 Comments
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  UN must learn from Sri Lanka - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  It comes as no great surprise to discover that international agencies such as the United Nations were unable to protect civilians in the final months of Sri Lanka’s civil war according to a leaked report. The last few months of the civil war in Sri Lanka were every bit as bloody and violent as the [...] read more
  November 14, 2012 4:59 pm - 4 Comments
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  Rwanda denies entry to former Australian Green Party leader Bob Brown - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  It has transpired that Bob Brown (former Australian Greens leader) has had his visa revoked for an upcoming trip to Rwanda. This is a very disappointing move by the Kagame government, which makes no attempt to veil that barring Bob from entering is an attempt to further stifle democratic opposition. I attended a Global Greens [...] read more
  November 13, 2012 12:06 pm - 4 Comments
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  Death of an ETS - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The ETS Amendment Bill went through the House Thursday afternoon, at the end of the 3rd reading. The NZ Parliament, I said, was enacting an iniquity.  With a bare majority, it was amending the ETS and guaranteeing dangerous climate change. I levelled the charge of moral ecocide at two Government leaders – John Key and [...] read more
  November 9, 2012 1:32 pm - 62 Comments
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  Climate change and New Zealand – Mr Groser leads us to the promised land… - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Two months ago, international scientists reported that the Polar ice-cap had melted far faster than the IPCC anticipated, about 80% since 1980.  It might have its first ice-free day about 2015 (half a century ahead of expectations) and be completely ice-free around 2030-35. This was described as ‘terrifying news’ by the leading scientist, since it [...] read more
  November 7, 2012 1:47 pm - 18 Comments
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  Australian initiative a challenge to NZ on climate change - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Australia’s plan to link its climate change policy with the NZ emissions trading scheme is a timely challenge to the Government to get up to speed. Last week Australian Minister for Climate Change, Greg Combet, gave a speech about his country’s plans to tackle climate change which throw into sharp relief the National Government’s backward [...] read more
  October 31, 2012 1:31 pm - 27 Comments
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  Climate Change & NZ: Whatever you do, keep it from the public… - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Tuesday, I asked the Climate Change Minister about the future of New Zealand’s climate change policy. After 20 years since Rio and the Framework Convention, we are approaching the end of the first, and only, five-year commitment period (2008-12) in which New Zealand has a binding obligation to ensure net emissions plus trading of carbon [...] read more
  October 24, 2012 10:34 am - 37 Comments
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  Climate change and human psychoses – seeking, genuinely, a National-Green dialogue - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  It has been a week of climate change. A quarter century, actually, since the US Senate and the Brundtland Report put the issue on the international agenda.  We’ve had, since then, Rio and Cairo, Kyoto and Marrakesh, Copenhagen and Cancun and Durban, and Rio again. But the past week has been especially intensive, and this [...] read more
  September 21, 2012 12:16 pm - 35 Comments
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  Civilising ourselves, resolution by resolution – advancing the concept of ‘human security’ - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Ideas drive political action.  They come from the deep well of philosophical and religious belief. They are disciplined by science, and flourish through the medium of literature and the arts. And through UN resolutions. Once upon a time, like the past 5,000 years, the safety of the individual was taken to be dependent on a [...] read more
  September 19, 2012 8:47 am - 13 Comments
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  Faith, hope, and charity in the nuclear age – Kazakhstan, New Zealand and everyone else - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Back in ‘91 a younger President Nursultan Nazarbayev faced a dilemma.  Along with independence just attained from the USSR, he had inherited 112 ICBMs sporting 1,200 nuclear warheads. A gift from heaven as it were, or from hell, depending on the level of your transcendentalism. Twenty years later, Nazarbayev has emerged as a hero of [...] read more
  August 31, 2012 4:50 pm - 3 Comments
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  Of yurts and twin towers – visiting Ground Zero – once again - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  It must be the fates.  My life seems to be a continual encounter with Ground Zero. For 6 years in the ‘90s, we lived in downtown Manhattan, directly across the road from the Twin Towers, our apartment falling within their shadows across Battery Park.  We were there in ’93 when the bomb took out a [...] read more
  August 30, 2012 9:07 am - 2 Comments
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  Undemocratic climate change underway: listening to whom you wish to – only - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The National Government has decided to kneecap the ETS and it doesn’t really want to hear the views of people who disagree. Were it otherwise, it would have given more than two weeks for people to make a submission – the way you’re expected to, with New Zealand draft legislation. Last week, the Government introduced [...] read more
  August 28, 2012 10:12 am - 4 Comments
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  Searching for common ground – over common sense: Hon John Banks, climate change, and me - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Thursday was one of those rare moments when parliamentary debate tosses up a touch of democracy – a juxtaposition of deeply-held views, expressed back-to-back, in one bill before the House. First up on the Order Paper was the Government’s latest foray into climate change legislation – the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading & Other Matters) [...] read more
  August 24, 2012 9:55 am - 14 Comments
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  Responding to the two global crises: thoughts on the Rio+20 conference - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  This piece was originally produced for the UN Association of Australia Conference, Brisbane, August 2012 Humanity today faces the first truly global crisis in its 5,000-year political history.  As we enter the Anthropocene: -       Our ecological footprint, surpassing Earth-share (bio-productive capacity per capita) in 1981, recorded an overshoot of 18% in 1992 and 50% in [...] read more
  August 21, 2012 5:54 pm - 110 Comments
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  Wondering how well-behaved we might be: reflections on conduct in the NZ Parliament - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  There was an exchange in the House last week that occasioned some media interest and concern from the public. It took the form of some theatrical antics by cabinet minister Paula Bennett, which prompted a rebuke from the Speaker, Dr Lockwood-Smith.  Likening the behaviour of a cabinet minister to that of a three-year-old inevitably caught [...] read more
  August 20, 2012 5:02 pm - 4 Comments
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  Time to move on Nuclear Weapons Convention - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  I am pleased with the recent report of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee to Parliament, which calls for the New Zealand Government to support a Global Nuclear Weapons Convention. I have a draft member’s bill along these lines as part of my Global Affairs portfolio on which I have been speaking around the country in [...] read more
  August 10, 2012 10:41 am - 35 Comments
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  A new organising framework – re-imagining global governance: Post-Rio reflection #3 - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  In the first two post-Rio reflections, I advanced two main propositions: That the international community needs to declare a global Ecological Crisis and undertake global executive action, rather than wallow in ineffective international legislative negotiations; That the interface between science and politics needs improvement, with the Secretary-General using high-level panels as an intermediary for policy [...] read more
  August 6, 2012 11:11 am - 22 Comments
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  “No need for concern – I know them personally”…enquiring about MFAT consultants, respectfully - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  In February this year, our parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee scrutinised the Foreign Ministry’s financial estimates. We had just spun out of scrutinising Defence Ministry estimates which showed that two officials had been laid off as a cost-cutting (‘downsizing’) exercise, with sizeable golden handshakes, only to be re-hired a minute after midnight, one on a temporary [...] read more
  August 3, 2012 8:33 am - 1 Comment
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  Post-Rio reflections – addressing the global crises #2 - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The 1st post-Rio+20 reflection last week argued that the international community of states has failed the global community of peoples in ensuring global sustainability (comprised of resource conservation, climate stabilisation and biodiversity).  There are, it said, two global crises: an ecological crisis and a governance crisis. On governance, what was needed is the replacement, or [...] read more
  July 30, 2012 2:06 pm - 3 Comments
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  Doing our fair share? Watch the Brits: assessing our Climate Change responsibilities - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Well-known columnist Colin James recently observed that there are rumblings from on high in UN climate change circles that New Zealand risks losing its status as an earnest player and honest broker because the current ETS is “loose and without a cap”, and because the Government’s 2020 emissions reduction target “has so many conditions that [...] read more
  July 30, 2012 12:57 pm - 21 Comments
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  Addressing the global crises with purpose and resolve…post-Rio reflections - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  This is the first of a series of blogs reflecting on the Rio+20 conference of June 2012. It is a question of the cognitive framework we adopt, as individuals or governments. -          Do we regard the environmental problems we face today as in the nature of other problems human society has faced before, and one [...] read more
  July 20, 2012 8:44 am - 24 Comments
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  Delivering as One? Reflections on the UN in Timor-Leste - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The UN has been effective in Timor Leste.  There is doubtless scope for improvement, as with any organisation, and not least the global body that combines differences of culture and professional style into one pea-soup of international engagement, literally from the ashes of internal conflict. But when the UN succeeds in that elusive goal, it [...] read more
  July 10, 2012 11:04 am - No Comments
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  Assisting according to our weight – a tribute to the Kiwis in East Timor - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  It is more than a passing irritation, as has been noted in various speeches and blogs of recent past, that NZ government leaders are unable to resist the temptation to crow, once safely tucked up in Parliament back home, about how we have punched above our weight at various international meets. Whether it is climate [...] read more
  July 9, 2012 4:15 pm - No Comments
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  To unite or not to unite, that is the question – the electoral politics of an emerging democracy - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The people have had their say, here in East Timor.  As the election observer missions are all reporting, the 2012 parliamentary election was a well-run affair. As required of stable democracies everywhere, it was organised well and run transparently, without violence or intimidation. Yet as with all parliamentary elections everywhere, it was not without its [...] read more
  July 9, 2012 2:00 pm - No Comments
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  Unique in its own way – observing the East Timor elections - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  East Timor is probably unique.  Possibly the last colonial enclave to attain independence from a European power through UN midwifery, straddling strategically critical deep-water straits between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and struggling to emerge from least developed status near the bottom of the UNDP’s Human Development Index. Also unique, given the above, in its [...] read more
  July 9, 2012 10:57 am - 2 Comments
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  We neither ‘succeeded’ nor ‘failed’ at Rio…and that is bad news - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Rio + 20 is probably the most important gathering of humankind to date.  The fate of the Earth hangs in the balance.  Earth will endure, albeit in degraded form.  Once were beauties, but the warriors turned up. There will be those who will say the G-20 in Mexico trumps it.  True in short-term; wrong in [...] read more
  June 24, 2012 5:28 pm - 12 Comments
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  No paradigm, please, we’re Kiwis – how did NZ do at Rio? - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Rio has come and gone, and so have the New Zealanders. I am off tomorrow, to New York on a different assignment for a few days. Then off again, to home where I have laid my head twice in two months. What did New Zealand achieve at Rio? I have blogged on Minister Adams’ speech, and [...] read more
  June 24, 2012 5:17 pm - No Comments
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  Fudging the issues at Rio – decide, agree, commit – or something more modest… - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The behemoth that is the Rio Declaration on Sustainable Development has less to it than meets the eye. It is long on declaratory intent, short on decisive resolve. Faced with an unprecedented global ecological crisis, the international community makes general statements of intent.  Recommendatory phraseology beats decision-making.  Feel less pain that way, right now. In [...] read more
  June 23, 2012 4:08 pm - 1 Comment
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  A ‘cross cutting and persistent crisis’ – Climate Change at Rio - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  What is the Rio+20 Earth Summit saying about climate change? Our world leaders, minus New Zealand’s John Key, are about to pass the torch. In the draft declaration, our world leaders will acknowledge that climate change is a ‘cross-cutting and persistent crisis’. They will express their concern that ‘the scale and gravity of the negative [...] read more
  June 22, 2012 11:50 pm - 7 Comments
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  Renewing political commitment – “I know I can do it…” - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Section 2 in the Document of All Time is titled ‘Renewing Political Commitment’. In this section, the whistling of the addict sets in. Our departure point is effectively Rio ‘92, with a nod to Stockholm twenty years earlier In this section, we recall Everything We Have Agreed on Since Then – Cairo and Beijing, Johannesburg, [...] read more
  June 22, 2012 8:37 pm - 2 Comments
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  ‘Peace in our time’ – the emerging UN document that will save us all - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Section 1. Our Common Vision UN documents are creatures unto themselves.  They represent the insight and will of the international community of states – the highest expression of political legitimacy humankind has yet evolved. It is a large international community.  There are 193 of us – up from a ‘manageable’, if less legitimate, 51 at [...] read more
  June 22, 2012 5:17 pm - 4 Comments
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  Apologising to Grant – from Rio - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  There was a time, when I was very young, that I posted a blog from Rio, lamenting the absence of any Labour MP here.  Apart from National’s cabinet minister, Amy Adams, I am the sole MP here at the Earth Summit. Grant contacted me to express his displeasure.  It was, clearly, hugely impolitic of me [...] read more
  June 22, 2012 2:44 pm - 3 Comments
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  Meet John Adams, NZ Prime Minister – masking our political shortcomings at Rio - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Some 115 heads of state or government assemble at the 3rd Earth Summit in Rio this week.  They include France and Australia. John Key, our erstwhile Prime Minister, is not among them.  He has more important things to do.  He has sent one of our more junior cabinet ministers, Amy Adams.  Amy Adams is a [...] read more
  June 22, 2012 8:57 am - 2 Comments