Make your voice heard on the ETS
The Emissions Trading Scheme is a scheme proposed by the government which needs cross party support to succeed. The Green Party are currently not sure whether to support it. They want to hear from you about what you think they should do.
In developing the ETS the government have made a number of compromises. One would be agriculture being excluded from emissions targets until 2013 (although I am not clear that this date can’t be further extended after Kyoto II in 2012).
There’s often a feeling in politics that in the absence of anything, a step in broadly the right direction is better than nothing. It’s an easy lie to be suckered into.
In the case of climate change, sustainability, and emissions trading, I don’t believe its true at all.
The compromises the Government continue to seek result in a sense that we are moving forward, but a reality in which we are actually standing still, or sometimes even moving backwards.
And bound up in all this, of course, are the politicians of various politicians – some of whom can be rather pig-headed at times.
If we take on the ETS in its current form, it establishes a way forward which is not only incomplete and insubstantial, but is likely to stay that way for a very long time to come. On climate change, like so many other matters, we shouldn’t settle for second best.
I think we should encourage the Greens NOT to support the ETS. To do so would not only be to render their own policies and beliefs incoherent, but it would do this country a huge disservice.
Whatever your view, you can contact the Green Party with it by emailing them at:ets@greens.org.nz.
Oh, and of course, if you are concerned about loss of Anglican Pension revenue by the introduction of the ETS, you may always want to encourage the Green Party not to support it.
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