Justice

Colin James on climate change

By Ant / 13 June 2007

What planet is Colin James on? For most of his opinion editorial in yesterday’s NZ Herald Green Business section (a section, please note – not the for faint hearted) he provides a reasonable overview of a situation (political engagement with climate change) that can best be described as ‘predictable’. He highlights correctly the way in which both John Key and Helen Clark both say there’s gold in them there climate change hills (ie. money to be made) – it’s just a shame he doesn’t highlight what a morally horrendous proposition this is as a driving force to action. What kind of a society are we aspiring to be, exactly?

That would be because Colin James seems to prefer the market mechanism, as witnessed later on in his item when he accuses the government of ‘dawdling for seven years’ and now ‘racing to make up time’. That’s the rub, isn’t it. Yes, this government could have done a lot more, a lot sooner, and I for one would have liked to see it. But in reality, we are only where we are now because the world has changed, politics around the world have new ‘green edges’. While public opinion may have also changed, public action has not altered a great deal for the better, it would seem.

As James says, we wanted bold initiatives, we got..well..what did we get? Well, as he notes, we got the government whip. Creativity and boldness is being sucked out of the climate change system.

Does climate change offer the best chance for Helen Clark to remain prime minister at the next election? Or the best chance for John Key’s entry? More importantly, who gives these people the power to play with our future, and yes, our future business, for the sake of electoral cycles?

It’s certainly a major part of the next election platform. But with the way it’s going, I think James has it wrong. I’d be inclined to find other fish to fry if I was serious about winning votes.

And the place I’d be looking? Something to reduce the horrendous and unacceptable level of poverty in this country, which persists despite Working for Families, and perhaps because of it. I’d be exploring things like a universal child benefit that is payable to the mother until the child is 18 years old, with an option to draw down on that allowance and get it all at once as a deposit on a house, for instance.

Climate change is the defining issue of our time, but we need to engage it in an integrated way – to understand the need to reduce poverty goes hand in glove with living more sustainably, and  implement that in policy and practice in our communities with innovation and boldness which so far has escaped climate change discourse. 

I think that kind of innovation and boldness can be found in parts of the church, when we dare to look and listen. to cut a long story short, ultimately, Ekklesia (church) rather than economics, could be the ‘community’ that shapes the future of our neighbourhoods, communities and nations.