Government Must Reconsider on Kyoto Protocol

Wednesday, September 26 2001 Ken Shirley Press Releases -- Economy

The Government must now reconsider urgently its position and curb its wild enthusiasm to ratify the Kyoto protocol, ACT New Zealand Deputy Leader and Forestry Spokesman Ken Shirley said today.

"The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research report released today clearly shows that NZ's adoption of the Kyoto protocol will seriously damage our economy by diverting investment, growth and jobs elsewhere.

"Initially the proponents of the Kyoto process claimed that forestry would be a WINNER. However now it is clear from the study that our commercial plantation forestry sector and our wood processing industries will be mortally wounded if the Government ratifies the protocol as it has promised to do by 2002.

"Is it any wonder that Carter Holt Harvey, NZ's biggest forestry company, has not reinvested in NZ the $2.4 billion it realised from the sale of its Chilean forests. And now rumour abounds that the company is about to move its head office across the Tasman.

"The Government must heed the hard messages in the NZIER report. It must also back down on its enthusiastic support of the flawed Kyoto protocol.

"A better strategy would be to work more closely with the USA and like minded nations to better understand the process of climate change. This alternative approach could lead to the development of workable programmes that might better alleviate any adverse impacts of climate change," Ken Shirley said.

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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