Leaving Paris Agreement would be a dumb move – PM

Answering a question from the audience at a farmer meeting in Waikato this morning, the PM says the move would end up punishing and hurting farmers.

Organised by Federated Farmers, the meeting at Mystery Creek Event Centre was attended by 120 farmers. Luxon was asked that as a very small polluter NZ belongs to the Paris Agreement while the biggest polluters - China, India and Russia - don't abide by the rules.

Luxon acknowledged that climate change was on people’s minds and that he had heard the calls from some farmers to withdraw from the Paris deal.

“But I can tell you right now, New Zealand is about 0.1% of the global economy and as important as our dairy industry is, and it's big to us, it's still relatively small in the global scheme of things.

“It would be, I think, a really dumb move that would end up punishing and hurting farmers and it would hurt all New Zealanders.”

Luxon talked about his time with global food giant Unilever, before he joined politics.

“It's one of the biggest companies in the world. In fact, I think when I joined it, it was three times the size of New Zealand as a country, just to give you a feel for it and we were in 195 countries.

“It's also with Nestle the two biggest ice cream companies in the world. I can tell you, the large multinationals that consume our dairy don't care too much whether they get it from Ireland, Netherlands or New Zealand. It's lovely they get it from New Zealand and it works for them and that’s great.

“But if we were to come out of Paris and tell you they'd just move it in a heartbeat, not a problem.”

Luxon points out that NZ has not only the best farmers in the world, but also the most carbon efficient farmers.

“And as a result (of leaving Paris), the countries that would love to knock us off the shelves all across the world, particularly in Europe and other parts of the world.”

Also at the meeting was Dr Will Happer, a visiting climate change expert from the US. Happer spent about 10 minutes after the meeting with Luxon discussing climate change.

Happer is in NZ at the invitation of farmer organisation Groundswell and Methane Science Accord for a series of farmer meetings.

Happer is widely recognised for his stance on climate science. He argues that the warming effect of carbon dioxide is modest (not catastrophic) and that increased CO₂ can benefit plant growth. His conclusions, published through the CO₂ Coalition, have stimulated vigorous international debate on climate sensitivity and energy policy.