Protest ETS Introduction

Kiwi Party leader Larry Baldock and party members will join today with members of the Climate Realists Network in protesting the planned introduction of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The protest will take place outside the National Party’s Central North Island conference in Hamilton during the time of the Keynote speeches by the Prime Minister, John Key, and Minister for Climate Change issues, Nick Smith.

“The Kiwi Party reiterates its opposition to the ETS. I opposed the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol when I was in parliament,” said Mr Baldock, “and I have seen no evidence since then to convince me that the obligations imposed by Kyoto upon us all are in the interests of New Zealand or the global climate.

From its inception, the Kiwi Party has resisted pressure to swallow all the hype and spin surrounding the theory of anthropogenic global warming.

In the Kiwi Party submission to the Emissions Trading Scheme Review Committee, set up as part of the ACT supply and confidence agreement with National after the 2008 elections, we called on the Government to delay the introduction of the ETS for at least 3-5 years.

We said then, “New Zealand has a proud record of taking leadership in the world - we urge this committee to follow that record by having the courage to make a recommendation to this parliament that will be seen as genuine and sincere leadership on the world stage, something that goes against the tide of media hype and political spin.

Our justice system does not allow an accused to be convicted where there is reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury over the facts of a case presented by the prosecution. We believe you will have heard sufficient evidence in many submissions presented before this committee to require you in all honesty to say there is reasonable doubt about the wisdom of the course of action the previous government embarked upon.

We submit to the committee that, in fact, there will be negligible damage from delaying at least another 3-5 years until we see if there is any empirical evidence of a sustained rise in global average temperatures to back the theory of anthropogenic global warming before we take such drastic measures as treating CO2 as a pollutant and imposing costs on those who produce it. If the current cooling trend does continue over the next three years there will need to be a serious re-evaluation of the global warming theory.”

That was at the beginning of 2009. Sadly NZ missed its chance to show true leadership as our cousins across the Tasman have shown some degree of leadership by delaying the introduction of their carbon trading system.

New Zealand, under John Key’s leadership, seems intent on being the only country foolish enough to follow the hysteria and madness of the environmental doomsayers, ‘like lambs to their economic slaughter’!

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