We are being spared any news of Durban climate talks which is a blessing. A repeat of the sickening display we saw at Copenhagen would be too much.
However our very own Tim Groser is leading a sickening display in Durban all by himself.
Tim Groser in Durban
“Having accepted a responsibility target under the Kyoto Protocol CP1 we are on track to meet our commitments and no matter what the outcome here in Durban New Zealand’s mitigation efforts will continue post-2012.”
The only reason we accepted this target is because it was a cheat target. Our net and gross emissions are way up on 1990 and increasing each year, but because we set our target using gross emissions and we meet it with net emissions we are sweet. In other words we report NZ’s emissions status including emissions and forestry removals during the commitment period but we ignore all the forestry removals in 1990 to make it look like we are achieving something even though we are not.
“New Zealand faces a real challenge with half of our emissions coming from agriculture but we have implemented an all sectors and all gases emissions trading system which is a first for a developed country and we are already seeing the benefits of reduced domestic emission levels.”
Bullshit! Groser is effectively lying to the world here. The reduced emission levels he talks about are not real reductions as our emissions continue to track up each year. Our domestic emission levels have not reduced at all they are just lower than what was projected. If there is any industry where you can call increasing emissions reduced emissions it is the global warming industry. An industry with almost no integrity at all. Even these so called reduced emissions have everything to do with bad projections and nothing to do with the ETS as Groser claims. This from the MOE explaining why our emissions are below projected levels.
The largest change was to projected emissions from agriculture. This is because the methodology used to calculate agricultural emissions for the national greenhouse gas inventory has changed. An improved methodology based from the latest science research shows emissions from New Zealand livestock excreta is lower than previously estimated.
It has nothing to do with the ETS as Tim claims. Groser is one of our smarter Ministers and for him to spin this bullshit to the world is disappointing and embarrassing. Our livestock might be producing less effluent but our Government is making up for that by producing more.
“We need to be able to go back to our own people,, whether we live in France or New Zealand, and say we aren’t the only people doing something. You will not carry public opinion if the debate is ‘you are the only idiots doing anything.’”
Is Tim Groser admitting we are the only idiots doing something?
New Zealand is calling for a “Kyoto plus” deal in which the U.S., China, India and other big greenhouse-gas emitters give stronger assurances that they will live up to their voluntary pledges to curb emissions by 2020, Groser, said in an interview in Durban.
Countries that are considering whether to stay in Kyoto need such guarantees to politically justify a decision to remain in the pact, Groser said.
If Tim Groser is saying he is happy for NZ to sign up to a second round Kyoto which will have binding obligations as long as other countries promise to meet voluntary targets then he needs to get a new job. It was a National Government that signed up to Kyoto in the first place, are they going to repeat the folly?
Hard to take Groser seriously here, while what he is saying to please the world is untrue for the reasons I have said I also believe when he talks of wanting another Kyoto he is being disingenuous. This is because NZ has amended the ETS legislation to allow offsetting from 2013, which means when a forest is cut down it can be replanted somewhere else.
The credits earned by offset forest are not valid under Kyoto, the rest of the world do not see these as genuine carbon credits so they can not be used to offset any post Kyoto liability. NZ would not allow offsetting if it believed it was going to have to meet future international liabilities so I think Groser is being dishonest with the people of NZ and the world.
Update just through from Durban
Groser might have just got us in a whole lot of trouble because the latest is that the USA has surprisingly agreed to come into an agreement which is a road map towards binding targets. There is a suggestion that Kyoto might be extended because of this which means NZ is in trouble because we will have to pay. This is because our net emissions have already increased to 1990 gross emission level so from 2013 or 2014 as they continue to track upwards we will be facing a deficit which will be increased when offset foresty plantings start.We will have to start buying international units from other countries.
Tim Groser has said he is happy for NZ to meet binding targets as long as other countries try to meet voluntary targets. These binding targets will cost us money, the voluntary targets will cost other countries nothing. The day $1 is paid offshore to meet our Kyoto liability is the day this Government has gone a step too far in this idiocy. Let it be a day they are never forgiven for.