The New Zealand delegation at UN climate talks in Bonn is embarrassing the country by outing us as laggards according to Greenpeace New Zealand’s Political Adviser in Bonn, Geoff Keey.
Unlike all other countries at the talks, apart from Russia and the Ukraine, New Zealand is refusing to put forward a proposed national emission reduction target. Geoff says New Zealand’s proposed stabilisation goal was no more than 450ppm. A couple of years ago, that might have seemed reasonable, but the most recent science indicates that 450ppm is way too high, is likely to push the world above two degrees warming, and could trigger catastrophic climate change.
Listen/Download Geoff Keey on NZ at the Bonn Climate talks
Last week The Business Roundtable said any climate change measures should wait until economic recovery is firmly established. However Labour leader Phil Goff says there is no time to delay in implementing a “New Green Deal” and to tackle climate change with bold initiatives that also create jobs.
Listen/Download Phil Goff on The New Green Deal
The UN Climate Change Secretariat in Oslo released figures on Monday showing the growth in New Zealand’s emissions between 1990 and 2006 to be among the worst in the world’s industrialised nations.
This announcement was made as the incoming National-led Government goes back to the drawing board to decide how to reduce emissions. Meanwhile Rodney Hide and ACT seem to be having a significant say in climate change policy.
Listen/Download Russel Norman on Hide’s weird thinking
Vincent reports that New Zealand is a victim of its own success. The latest WWF report says that we punch above our weight when its comes to leaving a dirty smudge on the planet. This is not good news because the cash used to fight dirty technology is drying up, but is there a silver lining to the dark clouds on the horizon? Vincent Heeringa is the editorial director at Idealog
Listen/Download Vincent Heeringa on Dirty ol’ New Zealand
Greens co-leader Russel Norman reports from the campaign trail and slams both Labour and National for climate change policies that make New Zealand a lagger rather than leader or even fast follower.
He agrees with John Key’s points on Labour’s poor climate change track record in the TV One YouTube debate but then slams National’s policies as even worse for the environment.
Russel also makes some sense of the shower head issue, universal student allowances and reveals that the Greens will say who they are prepared to go into a coalition with next week.
Listen/Download Russel Norman on New Zealand’s Lag
Predicting the weather is a dicey and often emotive topic. The metservice can get nervous trying to predict the weather a week out let alone a year into the future but thats exactly what Ken “Moon Man” Ring does. Ken predicts a golden summer much like our last and a bumper winter season with some rivers freezing over completely. You can find out more about the future on his website predictweather.com and in his latest Almanac.
Listen/Download Ken Ring on the Weather
