Climate change inaction will hurt economy

Doing nothing about climate change will lead to more extreme weather events, events like the storm that lashed the country over the weekend, costing millions of dollars and hurting the economy and communities, the Green Party said today.

“This weekend we have seen the devastating impact that extreme and unseasonal storms can have, and our hearts go out to the affected communities like Invercargill,” Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman said.

“Unfortunately, we know that one effect of climate change in New Zealand will be more extreme weather like this.

“There is no way to know whether this particular storm was related to climate change, but there is no doubt of the direction of the trend. As warmer air carries more water, there will be more extreme precipitation in the form of heavier rain, and – yes, weirdly – even more snow.

“Storms like this bring a huge economic and social cost. If we include these costs when we assess the problem of climate change, we can begin to see how wide-ranging its effects will be. Climate change has the potential to hurt not just our environment, but our economy and our communities as well.”

Dr Norman said factoring in all the impacts of climate change could shed some light on the UMR poll result which showed climate change ranked below other issues like jobs and the economy as an issue of concern to 500 New Zealanders surveyed.

“Of course, at a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty, jobs and the economy will be top of people’s minds. But doing nothing about climate change will lead to more economic damage.

“This poll was commissioned by the lobby group for big polluters, the Greenhouse Policy Coalition. It is no surprise that they framed the questions to suggest that taking action on climate change will cost jobs and money while inaction will cost nothing.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. Doing nothing on climate change is very expensive and will damage our economy, due to these extreme weather events and other effects such as sea level rise.”

Dr Norman said there were many ways for New Zealand to respond to the looming threat of climate change.

“We can invest in clean technologies and make the shift to a clean economy with lower emissions. Switching to sustainable technologies was supported by 66 percent of the UMR poll respondents.

“We can get ready for more extreme weather events and make sure that our communities are ready when they strike again. Improving our building codes to ensure our homes, businesses, and infrastructure can withstand more extreme events is one way to do this.

“And we can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, something successive Labour and National Governments have consistently failed to do.

“The excuse of doing nothing to protect the economy doesn’t wash. The best way to safeguard our economy for the future is to take action on climate change now,” Dr Norman said.

ENDS

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