frogblog

Jeanette used Question Time in the House to ask David Parker about NZ’s role in the recent UN climate change meeting in Vienna.

JEANETTE FITZSIMONS to the Minister responsible for Climate Change Issues: Can he confirm that New Zealand’s delegation to the United Nations climate change talks in Vienna tried to block non-binding emission reduction targets of 25 to 40 percent for industrialised countries; if so, was this delegation acting on the Prime Minister’s instructions or instructions from a member of her Cabinet?

Parker response (no transcript yet) was that NZ supported binding targets, but he did not say that NZ supported the target of a 25-40% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2020 from a 1990 base. Which is precisely the allegation that the NGOs are making - that NZ tried to stop the adoption of the 25-40% target. By refusing to state that the NZ govt supported the 25-40% target he is admitting that they opposed it, otherwise he would have simply stated that they supported it and that would be the end of the matter.

So we want other people to cut greenhouse emissions, because the science is that we need to cut by at least 25% by 2020 if we are to have a reasonable chance of avoiding two degrees of warming, but the NZ govt doesn’t want to cut our emissions. So if we all behave like this where will the planet end up? What may seem individually rational to the NZ govt will be collectively irrational if all other govts behave like this.