New Zealand’s promise “dead in the water” as Paris Climate Agreement comes into force – Greenpeace
Greenpeace New Zealand is calling for a summer of action to highlight what it’s calling the Government’s “sham plan” to meet the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which came into force today.
Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Kate Simcock, says despite being one of the first countries in the world to ratify the agreement, the New Zealand Government doesn’t yet have a plan for how it will curb climate emissions domestically.
It has committed to reducing emissions to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
“But information that Greenpeace received under the Official Information Act shows New Zealand is forecast to meet 80% of this target by offsetting our emissions in the international carbon market,” Simcock says.
“This means that currently our Government’s only action plan to meet our international obligations in the face of the climate emergency we’re facing is to buy our way out of it.
“If every country behaved the way we did, we’d literally be dead in the water. It’s not acceptable that we push the burden onto someone else so that we can keep polluting, it’s utterly immoral as a global citizen.”
The documents obtained under the OIA also show that officials are well aware of the lack of a domestic plan.
“It will become increasingly more difficult to address the gap between domestic emissions and international targets under our current settings: We need a plan for how we deal with climate change beyond 2030,” one section states.
Simcock says the Government is in denial about climate change.
“On his return from Paris a year ago, Prime Minister John Key indicated he had no intention of scaling back oil exploration here. Instead the Government launched straight into the block offer process, where vast tracts of our ocean are allocated to oil companies to survey and drill,” she says.
“If our so-called leaders won’t change a thing, then it’s up to New Zealanders. Two weeks ago we announced a ‘summer of action’, and it’s going to be big. We’re inviting everyone around the country to join us.
“The industry should expect community resistance at every turn, and the Government should prepare for a battering of its climate-denying oil agenda. This will all culminate at the next oil conference in Taranaki in March.”
Actress Lucy Lawless, who made international headlines in 2012 when she and six Greenpeace activists scaled the derrick of Shell oil drillship, the Noble Discoverer, and camped there for more than 70 hours, will also be joining the summer of action.
No Government will ever do anything meaningful about climate change. Never ever. You are wasting your time.
Not while people just go along with out increasing mess. Time is not wasted creating opposition to further biosphere damage.
Time IS wasted trying to get the Govt to give a shit about it.
Make all the changes you like in your personal life – but if you think Govt will enact changes that invove a roll back of a destructive lifestyle based on consumption then you are deluded because NO ONE WILL VOTE FOR IT.
This Government is a climate criminal.
Nactional has closed rail services in many regions during the last eight years.
While they have promoted increased truck volumes by 6 to 12 % throughout the country!!!!
While they savagely are mindlessly scrapping the Electric rail services on the main trunk line operation and are buying new diesel Locomotives to replace the electric locomotives!!!!!
Climate criminals that deserve to be tarred and feathered and banned from parliament.
This Govt do not work for NZ but the predatory investor state
1 metre of sea level rise wipes out most of Mission Bay, Kohimarama most of Devonport, Te Atatu, Auckland International Airport etc. and severs Auckland from the rest of NZ.
2 metres of sea level rise wipes out most of Napier and Hastings, much of Dunedin, Christchurch, all of low-lying Nelson, Tataka, Motueka, all of low-lying Wellington, Wellington airport and the coastal portions of SH1.
3 metres of sea level rise inundates most of Wanganui and renders the Wanganui portion of SHi unusable. Helensville pretty much disappears completely.
4 metres of sea level rise destroys most of Whangarei, most of Gisborne, most of Tauranga and all but the hill of Mount Manganui, plus most of Waitara and a quarter of New Plymouth.
Just think, all that is already locked in by around 2050 but if world governments work on it (promote to economic growth, continue to promote population growth and continue to promote greater consumerism -as is the plan) they can bring the whole sea level rise catastrophe (plus many other climate-related catastrophes) forward by a decade or two.
‘Davidson said recent data that has been collected but has yet to be made official indicates sea levels could rise by roughly 3 meters or 9 feet by 2050-2060, far higher and quicker than current projections.’
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2016/04/12/405089.htm
So perusing the argument often presented, that we can’t afford to change our economy quickly – will actually destroy any hope long term of having an economy that will support our population.
Accepting a 2 degrees C rise means accepting a long term sea level rise of approximately 20 meters if we use data from historic sea levels
.
But as we have no serious planning in place for containing the warming to 2 degrees and as we have little data on the flywheel effect of such a rapid increase in GHG emissions as we have experienced, then the alarming rate of melting ice is but an indicator of much more serious concern which seems likely to get much worse.
We have business, investment driven capitalism and governments that are totally our of control.
Gotta say, I’m completely shocked at how many people are falling for this climate scam. All proclamations are based on estimates and models. When you look at real data there is no global warming apart from natural variation, and in fact there have been many warmer periods in the past. You only find an effect after the data has been ‘adjusted’. The biggest act of stupidity I have seen is the suggestion that wind farms should replace our current electricity generation which is hydro! No, I tell a lie, the biggest act of stupidity is the suggestion that we focus on a vaccine to stop cows farting. I only wish that was a joke.
In the meantime, temperatures are more likely drop due to the approaching solar minimum and nothing is being done to prepare for it.
So the science is wrong? NASA is wrong? NOAA is wrong? Temperature data is wrong? Antarctic core sample are wrong?
Whew!
That’s a relief!!
For a moment there, I thought the laws of gravity were set in stone…