New Zealand’s newly launched Climate Party aims to make addressing climate change a much more urgent priority. The party believes that the New Zealand Government has not been taking the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions nearly seriously enough.

According to Party spokesperson, Peter Whitmore, the risks to both New Zealand and the world, if we continue down our current path, are made very clear by the World Bank Report, “Turn Down the Heat”, and by the recently released report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Globally, sea level rise, droughts, storms and rising temperatures are likely to cause displacement and destruction on a scale that will make the two World Wars look like minor events. This is not in the distant future. Sea level rise alone is expected to force between 50 and 200 million people to relocate by 2050.

“While New Zealand may not be so adversely affected as some areas, storms and rising sea levels are expected to bring major problems to roads, rail lines and developments near the sea in many areas. More frequent and intense droughts will harm agriculture. And some of our native species may not be able to adapt fast enough to rising temperatures to survive.”

The Party regards as unacceptable the current government’s position of continuing with ‘business as usual’ because New Zealand only contributes 0.2% of global emissions. According to Whitmore this is akin to saying, ‘I contribute less than 0.2% of NZ tax revenue, so paying my taxes is not important’. Or for a New Zealand business to say ‘We contribute less that 0.2% of the pollution of New Zealand rivers, so why should we clean up our act?’

On a global level New Zealand’s emissions may be low but, according to recent data they are the fifth highest out of the OECD countries on a per capita basis.

The Party also believes that our emissions trading scheme has degenerated into a farce because the current emissions charges are far too low to address our steadily climbing emissions levels or to cover the damage these emissions are causing.

According to Whitmore, New Zealand’s emissions have risen 25% since 1990, and government projections show this increase continuing until at least 2030. By comparison, Sweden introduced a simple carbon tax in 1991 and their emissions have fallen by around 10% since that time, without any apparent harm to the economy.

“New Zealand has enormous potential to replace fossil fuels with energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, hydro and bio-fuels. This would be a win-win solution. Not only would it knock back our emissions but we could also start saving on the over $7 billion a year we currently spend on imported fossil fuels.

“This is a time when New Zealand needs to show leadership, not just sit on the fence.”