Paris Agreement: What Are the Costs and Returns to NZ?
OPINION: We are only weeks from the election, and my vote is looking for a home.
That's the line Deputy Prime Minister and ACT leader David Seymour used on a windy South Auckland dairy farm as he launched his party's position on climate change.
For so long, NZ's mighty hydro lakes and geothermal wells let New Zealanders have it both ways.
"We could go to heaven for having low emissions, but we didn't have to die by having the lights go out. Unfortunately, that golden age of easy choices is over," Seymour says.
ACT is taking a middle ground approach to the Paris Agreement - it's not advocating for leaving the climate change pact, not yet anyway.
It is demanding changes, failing which, we exit the deal, adopted in the French capital in 2015.
New Zealand's 2050 climate target of cutting methane emissions by 24 to 47% of 2017 levels was set by the previous Labour government.
Read More:
- ACT, farmers push for changes to Paris Agreement
- 'Leaving Paris' not a good idea
- Groundswell ramps up 'Quit Paris' campaign across New Zealand
The current Government is being urged by farmer lobby groups to lower the target, and back away from any plans to put a price on methane. A scientific panel, appointed by National, found cutting methane 14-24% of 2017 levels by 2050 would achieve no added warming, but Cabinet has not said whether it will adopt that range as a target.
By seeking changes, ACT is seeking a better deal for farmers - meaning a fairer, more scientific approach to methane.
It has never made sense to treat cow burps the same way as emissions from coal-burning.
The farming community is warming to ACT's potion.
The problem may not be the Paris Agreement itself, but how it's being applied in New Zealand that is hurting farmers and rural communities. Overly ambitious methane reduction targets, whole-farm conversions to carbon forestry, and plans to price agricultural emissions are all homegrown policies.
While not everyone may be willing to put the 'Quit Paris' sticker on their car bumper, they agree on one thing - changes are needed.
