ETS Archive

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  What’s wrong with the National-Maori Party ETS? - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Basically, it’s less obligation for everyone, and more delay. Taxpayers pick up the cost. It seriously weakens the scheme we have now, and will do little to reduce emissions. read more
  September 18, 2009 6:30 am - 41 Comments
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  The ETS, power prices and income compensation - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  The Maori Party seems to be having difficulty getting the National Party to agree to raising the core benefit to compensate for higher electricity and transport fuel prices under the ETS. read more
  September 16, 2009 12:35 pm - 16 Comments
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  ETS: No majority = FAIL - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  The really interesting question now is, where is National going to get a majority for its amendments to the ETS in the House? Peter Dunne on his own hasn’t got the votes. They need one more party. The Maori Party’s minority report makes it clear they do not support an ETS at all, and if there is going to be one they do not support intensity based allocation. They have a simple principle: the polluter should pay. So National can... read more
  August 31, 2009 10:58 pm - 45 Comments
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  ETS: Four minority reports = FAIL - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  The long awaited report of the special select committee to review the ETS – yes, that one with the terms of reference that didn’t even mention reviewing the ETS – you know, the one forced on the government by a coalition partner who then mostly didn’t even turn up to occupy their place on it – yes, THAT one – has finally reported. read more
  August 31, 2009 10:50 pm - 42 Comments
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  Gratitude for a climate change denier - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Thank goodness for climate change denier Senator Fielding of Australia. Didn’t think you’d ever hear me say that, did you? Senator Fielding is the one vote Rudd didn’t have yesterday to pass their “Carbon Reduction Plan” – or Emissions Trading Scheme in our language. And that is a good thing, because the proposal was so [...] read more
  June 24, 2009 1:19 pm - 29 Comments
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  MP travel: offsetting the carbon cost - by frog

  
  
  
  A frog reader suggested we remind readers of the Green MPs carbon offsetting arrangements. Yesterday, they declared their travel spending since the beginning of the year, and committed to do it annually. Parliament is considering standardising such disclosure – great! In 2006 the MPs measured their emissions from air travel to create a baseline. Air [...] read more
  June 5, 2009 5:00 pm - 45 Comments
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  Seeing the forest and the trees - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  RadioNZ reported this morning that forest plantings in NZ are at their lowest level since World War II. The report shows that just 1000 hectares of new forest was established during 2008 – down from 2400ha in 2007. New planting peaked at 100,000ha in 1992. Deforestation (not replanting forest after harvesting or converting forest to [...] read more
  May 21, 2009 3:30 pm - 5 Comments
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  Farming and the ETS – the latest from the select committee - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Yesterday we heard all the farming related submissions. Federated Farmers continued to be the most extreme – agriculture should be entirely left out of the ETS because food production is important. But in NZ methane and nitrous oxide from farming are the large half (51%) of our emissions. Leaving them out means taxpayers fork out a hefty subsidy to farming, or other energy users pay twice as much as they otherwise would. read more
  May 6, 2009 7:30 am - 112 Comments
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  Aussie Greens strike out at ETS - by frog

  
  
  
  Australia can, must and will meet 40% cuts by 2020. The Greens are confident that once we set off on the path to 25% cuts, delivered mostly at home, we can easily accelerate our effort towards 40% and beyond to carbon neutrality. Putting 25% on the table will see Australia taken seriously at the Copenhagen [...] read more
  May 5, 2009 2:50 pm - 17 Comments
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  When is fair fair in the ETS? - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Yesterday’s select committee hearings on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) were a lesson on how to do it. We had invited all the iwi submitters to present in the early afternoon, just as we have grouped other like-minded submitters. But instead of each taking their individual 15 minutes for presentation and questions, they organised themselves [...] read more
  April 29, 2009 2:15 pm - 14 Comments
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  Indigenous climate change conference - by Metiria Turei

  
  
  
  Jeanette has blogged today on the Emissions Trading Scheme submissions from iwi and hapu. She talked about how it is necessary to treat Treaty settlement land and resources differently under the scheme, particularly forestry. This is a crucial point, especially in light of the issues discussed at the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change [...] read more
  April 29, 2009 9:30 am - 10 Comments
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  Govt misses big picture for the Kyoto trees - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  The revised “net position” of New Zealand’s Kyoto liability shows why forest sinks should never have been tradable against emissions from burning fossil fuels. This was a central argument at Kyoto in 1997 as the world struggled to set rules for reducing emissions internationally. The EU, and environmentalists, for different reasons, argued that forest sinks [...] read more
  April 20, 2009 8:33 am - 44 Comments
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  Will entry of energy sector to ETS be delayed? - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  It now seems almost certain that electricity, stationary energy and industrial emissions will not come into the Emissions Trading Scheme on Jan 1 next year as provided for in the legislation.The Act provides for detailed allocation plans to be developed and brought to Parliament for each sector that is trade exposed and so qualifies for [...] read more
  March 14, 2009 9:47 am - 16 Comments
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  Putting the ETS “on hold”? - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Question time yesterday gleaned a little more information about the Government’s plans for the ETS – and showed the full extent of their ignorance of how the scheme works.Many people have been wondering what John Key meant when he said he would “put the ETS on hold” while it was reviewed. We now know it [...] read more
  December 17, 2008 9:08 pm - 77 Comments
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  Michael Pollan on Food, Energy and Health - by frog

  
  
  
  Hat tip to O’Reilly Radar for leading me to this video of Michael Pollan speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit last month. Pollan tells it like it is – that agriculture is the key to tackling climate change and many other modern ills. Food is the shadow problem if they [the politicians] hope to deal [...] read more
  December 16, 2008 4:39 pm - 11 Comments
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  John Key’s Uncertainty Principle - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Does John Key understand the uncertainty his wild statements have created for business? Is there any thinking or policy intent behind the statement that the ETS will be “put on hold” or was it just post-election rhetoric? The key thing is that the businesses most affected don’t know. About a week after the election, reassured [...] read more
  December 15, 2008 11:34 am - 23 Comments
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  George Monbiot gives Yvo de Boer a serve - by frog

  
  
  
  In a new Guardian video series entitled Monbiot meets…, George gives the United Nations chief climate change negotiator Yvo de Boer a serve, and asks if the Kyoto protocol is too little too late for the planet. This version of the video is from eco-tube.com. We all know now that a carbon tax would have [...] read more
  December 9, 2008 11:34 am - 62 Comments
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  MAF warns Government - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  In the paper this morning I referred to the MAF briefing to the incoming Government released yesterday.The Government’s press release chose to focus on bland reassertion of the fact that agriculture is the back-bone of the economy as if someone had forgotten. Far more topical is the briefing’s sage advice for our climate change negotiators [...] read more
  December 2, 2008 2:22 pm - 23 Comments
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  NZ red-faced over climate change - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Why would someone who believes climate change is a hoax and human activity is not contributing to climate change, want a carbon tax? Why would you tax fossil fuels if you don’t believe they are doing any harm? Why would a party that has campaigned on a carbon tax since 1993 and accepted the ETS [...] read more
  November 30, 2008 4:31 pm - 89 Comments
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  Jeanette launches ambush in Paraparaumu - by frog

  
  
  
  We had been getting stories from the provinces that National MPs were telling voters that they wanted to pull out of Kyoto or that they wanted to exempt farmers from agriculture.  So Jeanette decided to find out for herself what the story was by leaping out from a coffee bar as John Key passed by [...] read more
  October 30, 2008 5:03 pm - 65 Comments