Archbishops press Govt for maximum greenhouse gas cuts

Lloyd Ashton | 11 Aug 2009

New Zealand's two Anglican Archbishops today sent an open letter to the Prime Minister and his colleagues commending them for setting a target band for greenhouse gas emission reductions – and urging them to go for the highest possible cuts.

Archbishops David Moxon and Brown Turei point out that the consequences of runaway climate change would be most severely felt by members of this church – folk in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga who belong to the Diocese of Polynesia.

The text of the open letter is as follows:

August 11, 2009

Rt Hon John Key, Prime Minister
Hon Nick Smith, Minister for Climate Change Issues
Hon Tim Groser, Minister of Conservation and Associate Minister for Climate change Issues

Dear Mr Key, Mr Smith, and Mr Groser,

We have learned this morning of the Government’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions “to between 10 and 20 per cent below what they were in 1990”.

We realise this is a significant obligation, and we want to endorse the serious commitment the Government has made to achieving these reductions.

As a nation we have, of course, an enviable – and increasingly valuable – reputation as being clean and green, and your actions will help safeguard this good image.

We note, too (and here we quote this morning’s New Zealand Herald report) that the Government has afforded itself “ample wiggle room” by choosing a wide target range.

We want to strongly commend that the Government set policies that will have us, as a nation, achieving emission reductions at the top end of that range.

We note that the 10 to 20 percent band is well short of the 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that many scientists believe is needed to limit warming to 2 degrees C.

We are advised that 2 deg warming is a threshold, which marks the difference between controllable climate change, and runaway change that would spiral out of control.

There are, we understand, many compelling reasons why New Zealand would be wise to set the highest possible target for greenhouse gas emission reductions: in all sorts of ways, doing too little now will cost a great deal more in the long run.

But we will draw attention to just one of these reasons.

The formal title for the Anglican Church in these islands is: The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. Anglicans in Suva, Apia and Nuku’alofa, therefore, are as much a part of our church family as Anglicans in, say, Auckland or Christchurch.

We have a particular feeling, therefore, for our nearest neighbours in the Pacific Islands – and for fellow citizens in other parts of the world who will suffer the effects of climate change far more grievously than we will.

At present, we understand 60 million people live in areas that are less than 1m above sea level.

The current projections for sea-level rise are in the order of 1.6m by 2100.

The implications of runaway climate change for our brothers and sisters in the Pacific Islands alone are obvious.

Yours faithfully,

Archbishop David Moxon,
Senior Bishop of the New Zealand dioceses

Archbishop Brown Turei,
Pihopa o Aotearoa

ENDS

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