National’s ETS Justifications Ridiculous

John Boscawen MP, ACT New Zealand
Press Release Tuesday, May 18 2010.

Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson is just the latest in a long line of National MPs to use incorrect and misleading statements in a desperate attempt to justify the impending implementation of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), ACT Climate Change Spokesman John Boscawen said today.

"Despite running out of arguments to convince the public that there is a point to the ETS, National still insists on imposing it on our economy," Mr Boscawen said.

"Yesterday, Ms Wilkinson emailed a member of the public about climate change and the ETS and said: ‘The Government views this issue as one of risk management.  There are uncertainties in the science, just as there are over earthquakes, but the prudent approach is to take steps to reduce the risks.’

"This is ridiculous.  While there are some uncertainties over whether global warming is occurring – and if so, whether it is man-made – everyone agrees New Zealand is too small to make any difference to world climate.  The Prime Minister’s own Chief Science Advisor Professor Sir Peter Gluckman has said ‘anything we do as a nation will in itself have little impact on the climate – our impact will be symbolic, moral and political.’

"The ETS will do nothing for the climate, but it will make New Zealanders poorer.  The logical course is to delay – if not scrap – it until all the world’s major emitters and our major trading partners commit to a binding global effort to reduce emissions.

"National should admit publicly what many of its MPs and most of its members have realised privately: the ETS is environmentally pointless and economically reckless.  Statements like those National has already made shows only that National has its head in the sand," Mr Boscawen said.