To John Key from Neil H 8 March 2010

Subject: A matter of Integrity & Principles

Dear Minister

Your Government moderated the Labour Government's Emissions Trading Scheme
(ETS) because it believed we should be fast followers, not the world leader
on matters of climate change response. It claimed that it was redesigning
the New Zealand scheme to align with Australia's Carbon Pollution Reduction
Scheme. However official Treasury documents reveal our scheme is eight times
more costly than Australia's.

Australia has not managed to get their scheme in place and is not likely to
until after their next election, if at all.

Your Government claims to follow the advice of the IPCC because it has the
most reliable information on climate change. But a leading scientist in the
IPCC process, Professor Phil Jones of East Anglia University, was forced to
admit earlier this month that 'there has been no statistically significant
warming since 1995'. He went on to admit that there has been cooling since
2002. This is clearly contrary to the advice of the IPCC fourth assessment
report of 2007. This must seriously question the reliability of the IPCC
information on climate change and therefore your administration's reliance
on it.

It is apparent there is a large and widening gap between what your
Government alleged at the time it amended the ETS and the actual reality we
face now.

When former Housing Minister, Hon. Phil Heatley, was confronted by the
discrepancy between expectations of the use of expense accounts and the
actuality of his expense account, he showed his integrity and strong
principles by resigning.

Will you, as Minister of Climate Change, be measured by the standards of Mr
Heatley and immediately take action to delay the implementation of our ETS
until the science clearly demonstrates humans are causing global warming and
our trading partners have similarly aggressive legislation in place?

Or will posterity measure you with same rod as that of the likes of Al Gore
whose film, 'The Inconvenient Truth', contains some thirty-five errors, or
Rajendra Pauchauri, chairman of the IPCC, who has clearly used the error of
Glaciergate for the benefit of the company he runs?

The longer your Government takes to admit the error, the greater the taint
on its reputation from those who have misused the climate change debate for
their own personal gain.

Yours faithfully

Neil Henderson
www.climaterealists.org.nz <http://www.climaterealists.org.nz/>
 

To read Nick Smith's reply click here