Labour welcomes Stern call to action

Labour welcomes Stern call to action

The Labour Party has welcomed leading climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern to New Zealand, and says that his call for a renewed commitment effort to combat human-induced climate change is timely.

Environment and Climate Change Issues Spokesperson Charles Chauvel said that he was looking forward to attending Lord Stern's Robb seminar at Auckland University today and that Labour Leader Phil Goff would also be holding a private meeting with Stern during his visit.

"Nicholas Stern is one of the world's leading thinkers on climate issues. His work in the British Treasury was instrumental in ensuring a robust commitment from the UK to binding carbon pollution reduction targets", Charles Chauvel said.

"Stern's message is that countries like New Zealand can gain real economic advantages by starting to make the transition now to a lower pollution economy now.

"He's right. If we fail - as we largely have so far - to start to take meaningful action now, we risk facing major regrets later on. The steps that need to be taken are not difficult or mysterious.

"We need to invest heavily in research into reducing agricultural emissions whose results we will own. We need to do much more to promote a domestic biofuels industry and invest in better public transport. We need to plant a lot more trees and build more wind farms and geothermal power plants. We need to be much more energy efficient, and we need to promote our cleantech industries. We need to price greenhouse pollution instead of making households subsidise big emitters.

"Doing these things won't just help us reduce greenhouse emissions. They'll add reality to the clean international brand we're trying to build. And they'll help lay the foundation for durable future prosperity for our country.

"Lord Stern's visit and his talks are a timely reminder that it's important to keep making progress in all these areas", Charles Chauvel says.

ENDS