Written By: - Date published: 10:25 pm, November 29th, 2009 - 9 comments
Will Key go to Copenhagen? Or rather, why wouldn’t he want to go? According to TVNZ tonight: At least 90 world leaders are now expected to attend next month’s global climate change talks in Copenhagen but New Zealand’s prime minister still says he will not be among them. That is despite coming under pressure at […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, November 29th, 2009 - 15 comments
Among the breathless reporting of who John Key is having a meeting with (‘he’s talking to the Queen!’ ‘he’s going to talk to India’s PM), as if a meeting itself is an outcome, an achievement, I’ve seen one very interesting comment on CHOGM. On her blog, Audrey Young writes about French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s appearance […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, November 28th, 2009 - 16 comments
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon have called on world leaders to attend the Copenhagen talks on the new climate change treaty. President Obama will be attending as will the leaders of most major countries. Yet John Key still says he almost certainly won’t go, even after New Zealanders raised the money […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, November 27th, 2009 - 6 comments
Another instalment of “John Key’s” video diary from talented impersonator PlumedeKiwi; this time taking a comedic stab at the PM’s refusal to attend the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Key has come under an increasing amount of pressure in recent weeks over the summit, widely dubbed one of the most important meetings in history. It’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, November 27th, 2009 - 17 comments
Gerry Brownlee is talking of digging up Coromandel to extract a few tens of millions of dollars worth of gold. Naturally, the company that owns the Waihi mine is all for it. The local community gets little benefit from mining. According to the 2006 census, unemployment in Waihi is twice the national average (8.3% at […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, November 27th, 2009 - 94 comments
Much ado about nothing in the last few days, with the release of materials related to climate change and warming on both the international and local scales. First the international event – “Climategate” (sigh) – the now well known theft and publication of data from the University of East Anglia’s world renowned Climate Research Unit. […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, November 26th, 2009 - 77 comments
Never in the history of New Zealand politics has so much taxpayers’ money been hurled into the chasm with such contempt for the poor citizens who will pay billions out of their own dwindling pockets forever while rich polluters wreck the earth with impunity and bask in the profits. Never in the history of NZ […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, November 26th, 2009 - 22 comments
Maori Party policy on the environment: We aspire to work together to make the economy great but not at the expense of our environment. Climate change affects us all and the biggest emitters must take responsibility to change the way they do business. Any cost they pass on to consumers must encourage environmentally responsible choices. […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:31 pm, November 25th, 2009 - 32 comments
So, the National / Maori ETS is now law. Waiho mÄ te WhakamÄ e Patu. Shame on those who supported this appalling legislation and the anti-democratic process used to ram it in to law.
Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, November 25th, 2009 - 9 comments
Via Newsroom [offline], Pita Sharples has confirmed reports of an internal revolt within the Maori Party over its support for National’s ETS. The Maori Party will honour its deal to back National’s emissions trading scheme despite many in the party being opposed to much of the ETS bill, co-leader Pita Sharples has said in a […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 25th, 2009 - 12 comments
Maori Party whip Te Ururoa Flavell is doing what he can to play down internal divisions that suggested the party could vote against John Key’s Emissions Trading Scheme. But in light of the divisions that surfaced on stuff, one must wonder why the Maori Party on this crucial piece of legislation is only casting four […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, November 25th, 2009 - 5 comments
Rod Oram did a business segment on Nine to Noon yesterday. As usual he went quite deep into the issues. A welcome contrast to Colin Espiner and his very limited level of understanding (“they did it too”) on the complete change of direction in the short-sighted changes to the Emissions Trading Act being pushed through […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, November 25th, 2009 - 40 comments
Breaking news. It seems that turmoil within the Maori Party may derail the ETS after all: EXCLUSIVE: An 11th hour revolt within the Maori Party is threatening to torpedo the Emissions Trading Scheme deal with the Key Government. Even if the revolt does not succeed – Environment Minister Nick Smith is hoping to secure passage […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 12 comments
Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 34 comments
On his blog, Colin Espiner writes: “it’s also extremely ironic to hear Labour wringing its hands about the impact of the ETS when…HELLO…Labour passed the Emissions Trading Scheme!!!” Oh dear. That’s like saying ‘Labour is opposed to National’s ACC policy but Labour had an ACC policy of its own, hello!!!’ Labour isn’t (and I really […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 73 comments
It has been fascinating over the last few days watching the CCDs (Climate Change Deniers) make an another attempt to scale the bastion of scientific thinking and language. In this case someone hacked a copy of decade of e-mails at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at a insecure University of East Anglia webmail server. There […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 24th, 2009 - 35 comments
So, as far as National and Maori leaders are concerned, it’s a done deal: “Maori Party to support ETS – bill to become law in days”. Unless (as suggested by Eddie) some Maori Party MPs remember their principles and vote against it, National’s ETS will be forced through parliament under urgency. NRT weighs in with […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, November 24th, 2009 - 14 comments
National wants to get its shambolic ETS through the House this week. It’s not quite clear what the hurry is; there’s no actual reason why it should be passed before the Copenhagen meeting in December, it’s just an artificial deadline that National have set themselves. We already know the ETS will cost taxpayers hundreds […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, November 23rd, 2009 - 23 comments
1) What the hell is John Key trying to say here? “Maori are not getting special preference, if you go back to those pre-1990 forests Maori are significant owners in that area, so is Ngai Tahu, those forests are all affected by the emissions trading scheme unless we can get a change at Copenhagen and […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:59 am, November 22nd, 2009 - 45 comments
Unbelievable. John Key has opened the environmentally destructive Whangamata Marina. This was a battle between rich property developers, against the serious concerns of local Maori, surfers, and environmentalists. Key has come down firmly on the side of his rich mates. But not only that, he’s promised more marinas! The building of marinas along popular coastal areas […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:51 pm, November 19th, 2009 - 55 comments
The Fed Farmers have used Goff’s speech on monetary policy to have another whinge about beneficiaries, who they reckon are somehow to blame for the high dollar that’s crippling our exporters. Weird, I know, but then that’s the Feds for you. The dogwhistle term they’re using is ‘government spending’, but thanks to a recent admission […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, November 19th, 2009 - 4 comments
A couple of days ago I raised (again) the question of why we don’t see more experts, scientists and academics contributing to public debate. Well here’s one example where they are doing so: Docs say emissions trading scheme will hurt Kids Senior doctors today said that the intended changes to New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, November 18th, 2009 - 24 comments
Nice Mr Key may be feeling the strain a bit. He’s starting to sound quite snippy: Meanwhile, Key has also slammed Treasury predictions that the proposed changes to the ETS would add $50 billion to the price tag of the scheme. “The numbers from Treasury are nonsense. Treasury can’t tell us what the deficit is […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:49 pm, November 17th, 2009 - 47 comments
The new head of Greenpeace, South African Kumi Naidoo, has pledged under his leadership that the organisation’s core focus will be the effect of climate change on the world’s poorest people. This is great news. I have always been critical of the way many (really great) environmental organisations have tried to divorce themselves from social […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:45 am, November 17th, 2009 - 61 comments
The government’s handling of the ETS is a total shambles at every level. Even their fans at The Herald are pointing out the elephants in the room: Another sorry chapter in emissions farce It is rare that all-party select committees of Parliament cannot agree on some improvements to a Government bill even if some parties […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:59 pm, November 16th, 2009 - 12 comments
The Maori Party says it will support John Key’s emissions trading scheme in exchange for a lucrative deal for the wealthiest Maori. According to TV3: Five of New Zealand’s richest iwi, who have already signed multi-million-dollar treaty settlements, will gain millions more in the deal. Basically, Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples don’t give a sh*t […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, November 16th, 2009 - 38 comments
A month ago, I wrote that National’s moves to gut the Emissions Trading Scheme would increase government debt by $73 billion by 2050. A Treasury report said that National’s ETS changes to subsidise polluters would see government debt 6-8% of GDP higher than it otherwise would be. GDP in 2050 is modelled at $914 billion, so 8% […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, November 16th, 2009 - 2 comments
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has released its report on John Key’s Emissions Trading Scheme. ACT, Labour, and the Greens refused to support the changes which will see taxpayers subsidising big business. We were unable to reach agreement on whether to recommend that the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill be passed, because of members’ […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:46 am, November 14th, 2009 - 11 comments
The Greens have announced the collapse of the cornerstone of their Memorandum of Understanding with National. With Gerry Brownlee as Minister for Energy, National hasn’t only failed to make progress on energy efficiency and conservation, it is taking illogical, retrograde steps. So why are the Greens continuing to provide greenwash for this government? I’m thinking about […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 13th, 2009 - 37 comments
One of the UK’s most influential newspapers, The Guardian, carries a stinging attack under the title New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it’s no friend of the earth. It damns us for our abject failure to live up to the clean, green image we sell ourselves on. Here are the main points: […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 13th, 2009 - 4 comments
Welcome to a new NZ blog, Sciblogs. From the About: Sciblogs brings together the best science bloggers in the country on one website, creating a hub for scientific analysis and discussion and facilitating reader interaction. The website is for scientists who want to reach out to a general audience to explain their science and how […]
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