NZ’s emission reduction target downgraded to “inadequate”

Auckland Wednesday 16 December - The target ranking system (1) John Key has been relying on (2) to claim New Zealand’s placed well at the climate talks in Copenhagen has just changed the ranking of New Zealand’s target to “inadequate”- the worst ranking possible.

“This is yet another blow to the Government’s excuses for a weak target,” said Greenpeace’s Simon Boxer. “The Government has spent the last week praising the Climate Action Tracker ranking of New Zealand as proof that its highly conditional 10-20% reduction target was sound. Now the ranking says New Zealand’s target is insufficient.”

The reason for the downgrade is that new data about New Zealand forests has now been assessed and taken into account. This is important because tree planting offers a potentially cheap way of avoiding making any emission reductions at all.

The Climate Action Tracker has four classes of target: role model, adequate, medium and inadequate. New Zealand has been placed into the lowest ranking.

ENDS

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