Emission Impossible challenge to Climate Change Minister
December 15th, 2014
In response to this mornings story in the NZ Herald, Climate Change: NZ’s emission impossible, Dr Gerda Kuschel, Emission Impossible Ltd spokesperson on climate change issued a challenge to Climate Change Minister Tim Groser.
“It’s not enough to come up with a good story Minister. It’s time the New Zealand Government got serious about climate change and started working towards actual reductions”.
The Minister is in Lima taking part in negotiations with 190 countries on a plan to fight global warming and was quoted as saying:
“There’s a lot of work to do but we’ll come up with something and have a good story to tell,” Mr Groser said. The minister said it was also difficult to set a target because the Lima deal had not established a legal framework for reducing emissions.
Emission Impossible Ltd supports the Green Party of New Zealand Climate Protection Plan (and other common sense economic policies). This advocates:
Establish an independent Climate Commission to provide expert and independent advice to the government on carbon prices, carbon budgets, and complementary measures to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050
Phase out the failed Emissions Trading Scheme and instead put a meaningful price on carbon through a charge on polluters
Recycle all revenues raised from a carbon charge back to families through a $2,000 income tax-free band a 1 percent company tax cut. Households will be on average $319 better off every year with the Climate Tax Cut
Introduce a suite of complementary measures to reduce New Zealand’s emissions and make the transition to a low carbon economy