ETS review panel should resign in protest

Media release from the NZ Climate Science Coalition

1 April 2011

The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) Review Panel chaired by Hon David Caygill should resign in protest at being treated in a cavalier manner by the Government, according to Terry Dunleavy, secretary of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition.

“Nothing more strongly reflects the Government’s mindless fixation with so-called greenhouse gas emissions, or the now obvious fact that setting up the ETS Review Panel was simply a smokescreen to allay concerns that despite a continuing slight increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, global temperatures remain stable if not actually cooling, than the announcement by Climate Change Minister Nick Smith that a 50% reduction in emissions by 2050 is to be formalised as policy by notification in the Gazette; this announcement coming just two days before the ETS review panel begins its work.

“In effect, the Government is saying to Mr Caygill and his colleagues: ‘do what you like, but we won’t take any notice’. Rather than remain parties to such a useless smokescreen, Mr Caygill and his colleagues should resign in protest of being sidelined in advance,” said Mr Dunleavy.

“Making the whole emissions scenario even more ludicrous is the announcement earlier today by no less an expert body than the International Energy Agency (IEA) that there is no guarantee New Zealand’s ETS will actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  This statement by the IEA comes just days after Australia’s Climate Commissioner, Dr Tim Flannery, told the Melbourne Herald-Sun columnist Andrew Bolt ‘If the world as a whole cut all emissions tomorrow the average temperature of the planet is not going to drop in several hundred years, perhaps as much as a thousand years.’ And later, when asked by how much Australia’s temperature would drop if it cut emissions 5% by 2020, Dr Flannery said: ‘It will be a very, very small increment.’

“With all that has happened recently on the economic and other fronts, why must New Zealanders suffer more pain, if there is no gain?  The Government must recognise that the zealotry constantly demonstrated by Minister Smith on ETS, in the absence of any valid scientific evidence that emissions will cause dangerous warming, is exposing the National Party to increasing ridicule and the possibility of electoral backlash as has just happened in State elections in Australia,” Mr Dunleavy concluded.