ETS could be funny comedy theatre play if it wasn’t so serious!

The Prime Minister has now finally acknowledged that households will bear more than their fair share of increased energy costs when the next phase of the Emissions Trading Scheme takes effect on Thursday this week.

Kiwi Party leader Larry Baldock said it makes no sense to impose additional costs on every household at a time when so many are still struggling to recover from the recession.

“By now stating the ETS imposes a 'disproportionate burden' on every family in NZ the PM is finally admitting that the ETS is in fact taxing household budgets heavily so he can make a pretence of addressing climate change on the world stage.

"If the Prime Minister would take a good look at that ‘world stage’ he would notice that most of the players have ended their major performances and can now be seen hanging about in the wings of the stage waiting for the curtain to come down on the greatest comedy act in recent history!

"There are still the usual 'King Canute-like' speeches and promises to stop global warming going beyond 2 deg C, but paragraph 23 of the G8 Muskoka Declaration Recovery and New Beginnings report reveal a definite shift away from the desperate action on reducing Greenhouse Gas (GG) emissions to save the planet.

"23. While remaining committed to fighting climate change, we discussed the importance of ensuring that economies are climate resilient. We agreed that more research was needed to identify impacts at the global, regional, national and sub-national levels, and the options for adaptation, including through infrastructural and technological innovation. We particularly recognize the situation of the poorest and most vulnerable countries. We will share our national experiences and plans for adaptation, including through a conference on climate change adaptation in Russia in 2011."

"The words, 'climate resilient', 'options for adaption', 'plans for adaption' and 'more research needed to identify impacts' should alert the reader to political speak for 'how do we dig ourselves out of this global warming hole!'

"After all if the climate is to get warmer by more than 2 deg C by the end of this century, as the doom-saying prophets have predicted, it is hard to explain why the Global Average Temperature (GAT) has not increased since its peak in 1998 while GG emissions have continued to dramatically rise, especially assisted by the recent Icelandic volcanic eruption. To achieve anything like a 2 degree increase by 2100 we should have seen the temperature increase by at least an average of 0.2 over the past decade and nothing like that has occurred.

"Instead of being admired for leading the world, New Zealand may ultimately become the laughing stock of the world because we blindly went ahead while others were starting to discern between fiction and reality," said the Kiwi Party leader.

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