The Government today released submissions on its Climate Change Domestic Policy Options Statement.

Environment Minister, Simon Upton, said the Options Statement proposed three interim measures for constraining greenhouse gas emissions prior to the Kyoto Protocol's commencement date of 2008 (these included emissions trading and a carbon charge).

"The Government has decided not to adopt one of these at this stage. A decision will be made on which interim measure is to be adopted after the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP6), which is to be held sometime around the end of 2000.

"Important issues are expected to be resolved at COP6 which will bear directly on New Zealand's domestic considerations".

"All options remain on the table in the meantime", Mr Upton said.

“We are also continuing to work on measures to reduce emissions in the agriculture and energy sectors, and we are providing more funding to these programmes” Mr Upton concluded.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>