Like many countries, New Zealand has prided itself on its worldwide image, in this case as clean and green, for example: clean rivers and lush forests.
However, an article, "New Zealand was a friend to middle earth, but it's no friend of the earth", written by climate author Fred Pearce on 14 November 2009 in the Guardian newspaper, dubbed New Zealand as shameless for selling itself as a “Clean, Green” country to the world because New Zealand’s emissions target has not been met and in fact, emissions have gone up rather than down.
New Zealand and the Kyoto Protocol: Was it a Waste of Time?
New Zealand signed the Kyoto Protocol in December 2002, agreeing to keep its emissions the same as 1990 levels through to 2012 or take responsibility for emissions above target levels. However, current evidence shows emissions have surpassed the current target and the next target is due to be set for 2020 shortly. In fact during 2009, New Zealand’s emissions skyrocketed by 22%, that was not including fuel burning emissions which were up 39% (Goh., 2009).
According to the Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand, emissions have risen steadily since 1990 and are expected to keep rising. The Ministry for the Environment’s way around the Kyoto target for 2010 was to plant 600,000 hectares of forest which won’t mature till 2020, by then New Zealand will have a new target but that is expected to be surpassed as well.
The Emissions Trading Scheme: Trading Carbon Credits for Big Business
New Zealand is a member of the emissions trading scheme in which “carbon credits” are exchanged between certain participants in the emissions trading scheme. The participants are specified by the activities a company trades in, for example: electricity production, agriculture, waste and many more. These activities are all high emission generators with agriculture (N2O, CH4 emissions), electricity production and transport (CH4 emissions) the worst offenders in New Zealand.
At face value the emission trading scheme was set up to offset emissions by big energy users to pay for their emissions. However, the biggest users are some of the biggest companies, who it seems, are in cahoots with the governments of their own countries to get away with rising emissions by paying very little for very large amounts of emissions, for example: one New Zealand unit (NZU) of emission, covers two metric tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, after 2012 this will be dropped to one metric tonne. The cost of one emission unit is at present NZ$25: a small price to pay for a billion dollar company.
On one hand New Zealand is saying let’s set a target and on the other it is saying we are not going to take any notice of it: it’s for show. Should New Zealand carry on like this, its clean green image won’t stand a chance, it will be wallowing in self pity with its energy and agricultural companies making money whilst still creating a dirty atmosphere with all its best workers and brains offshore because they saw it coming.
New Zealand’s 100% pure, tourism ads have been around for a long time and are seen all over the world. They should be seen as a goal for New Zealand to aspire to, so New Zealand’s lakes, rivers and air are as close as possible to 100% pure.
References:
Pearce, F., "New Zealand was a friend to middle earth, but it's no friend of the earth", The Guardian Newspaper, 12 November 2009.
"The Kyoto Protocol", Ministry for the Environment, mfe.govt.nz, New Zealand.
Goh, E and Tapaleao, V. "New Zealand takes prize for 'Shameless two fingers' to world" New Zealand Herald, November 14 2009.
Rhonda Chalmers - Rhonda has a BSc in Geology, graduating from the University of Auckland in 2007. Rhonda lives in Brisbane and works full-time as an ...
