With the 18th UN climate change conference underway, it's probably about time to take note of a few issues concerning how much concern is being giving to our GHG emissions by New Zealands Minister for Climate Change Issues, Tim Groser.One thing I want to highlight from the get go is that the US economy has started to show signs of recovery with 2.7% annual growth, while still being able to reduce their emissions by 430 Mt or 7.7% since 2006.
In comparison New Zealands economy is still stagnant at around 0.6% annual growth, while our GHG emissions are starting to increase once again under a right wing National government.
Despite New Zealands previous emission reductions between 2006 and 2009 due to a weaker economy and a move to using more gas powered generation (similar to the US), New Zealand is once again seeing an increase in GHG emissions while having little economic recovery, which is a very unfortunate dynamic to be seeing.
During Parliaments question time last Thursday, Green party co-leader Russel Norman raised the issue in the house of representatives that New Zealand had the second fastest increase in net emissions of all developed countries, which increased by 60% between 1990-2010 according to the United Nations national greenhouse gas inventory data.
Tim Groser, said:
The point I am making is that in the period for which this Government has had responsibility, New Zealand’s emissions in net terms have decreased.
However if the Ministry for the Environments statistics are anything to go by, this statement appears to entirely untrue.
The following table shows a breakdown of the emissions forecast for each sector for each year in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
Table 1: Projections of emissions and removals by sector and by year for 2008–2012
Emissions (millions of tonnes of CO2 equivalent)
| ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2008
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
Total
| |
Energy
|
34.4
|
31.6
|
31.1
|
30.9
|
33.8
|
161.8
|
| Industrial processes and Solvents |
4.3
|
4.4
|
4.8
|
4.8
|
4.9
|
23.2
|
Agriculture
|
33.4
|
33.5
|
33.7
|
34.6
|
35.3
|
170.5
|
Waste
|
2.1
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
2.0
|
10.0
|
Forestry
|
–16.7
|
–17.0
|
–17.5
|
–16.9
|
–17.7
|
–85.8
|
Gross removals
|
-18.2
|
–18.3
|
–18.4
|
–18.5
|
–18.7
|
–92.2
|
Deforestation
|
1.5
|
1.3
|
1.0
|
1.6
|
1.0
|
6.4
|
Total
|
57.5
|
54.5
|
54.2
|
55.2
|
58.3
|
279.8
|
That means Tim Groser has misled the house of representatives concerning New Zealands GHG emissions, which have in fact increased since National gained power.
This might not matter so much if it wasn't such an important topic, but clearly reducing GHG emissions is one of the most pressing issues the world faces today.
Unfortunately such misinformation concerning climate change seems to be a regular occurrence in parliament whenever National politicians open their mouths... What a bunch of climate change deniers.
