More climate change problems for Govt

There is no portfolio area where the difference between rhetoric and reality is greater – than environment – specifically climate change.  Clark talks about carbon neutrality while her growth in carbon emissions record is amongst the worse in the world compared to Kyoto targets.

Now a report by the NZ Institute reveals that the Government’s emissions trading scheme (already under fire by multiple groups) and other announced policies will have NZ miss our Kyoto target by 38 years!

Instead of getting back to our 1990 levels by 2012, they predict it won’t happen until 2050. Dr Skilling makes a valuable point:

Half of New Zealand’s emissions come from agriculture but it is harder to redesign a cow than a car.

The Government has voted in Bali to have a target of reducing emissions by 2020 to 25% to 40% below 1990 levels. To be blunt this is just not going to happen – it is almost a con. Even National’s goal of a 50% reduction by 2050 is looking overly optimistic according to NZI who suggest a 30% reduction by 2050 would be about as challenging as NZ could manage.

Related to this is a poll out by the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development.  It’s a poll of those who take part within an online panel so not as robust as a truly random poll, but the Hive points out one interesting aspect:

When asked which of the two main parties would be best to manage climate change only 33% picked Labour and 32% picked National.

Also 35% of respondents ranked the Government’s management of climate change as below average and only 18% above average.  Not good when this is meant to be Labour’s biggest issue.

This strongly suggests that the public (or at least those who take part in NZBCSD surveys) are seeing through the Government’s rhetoric and realising how appalling their actual record has been.  I mean it is almost unthinkable that say a year ago just as many people would cite National being as good as Labour on climate change.