Hon Dr Nick Smith MP
National Party Environment Spokesman

06 October 2006

Climate change announcements underwhelming

Labour’s underwhelming announcements on climate change today show the Government has lost its way, says National’s Environment spokesman Nick Smith.

“All that was announced today is Labour’s intention to form a committee and a vague suggestion it might introduce some pricing mechanism for emissions after 2012. The policy announcements make hot air of the opening statement by the Minister ‘there was a growing sense of urgency amongst Government and citizens that action needs to be taken now’.”

“This is unbelievably weak for a Government going into its eighth year. New Zealand faces the embarrassment of emissions growth three times larger than that of Australia and four times faster than that of the United States. Yet we have a Government with no policies to seriously address it.

“Labour ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002, yet 15 months before it’s due to take effect the Government still has no substantial policy, and right now all the projections point to us grossly breaching the protocol, with the taxpayer picking up a bill of $500 million.

“Later today, National will outline a policy approach that will have New Zealand taking sensible steps now to address climate change for future generations.”

ENDS

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