New Zealand is the latest country to set a long-term carbon cutting target, aiming to halve its emissions from 1990 levels by 2050.
Minister for Climate Change Nick Smith said that major changes to the economy would be needed if it was to reverse the trend that saw the countrys emissions rise 23 per cent to 74.7 million tonnes between 1990 and 2008.
"Setting a long-term target provides long-term certainty about where domestic climate change policy is headed so we can plan and invest accordingly," Smith said. "New Zealands contribution to global emissions is very small and our objective should be neither to lead nor lag but do our fair share."
New Zealand already has an emissions trading scheme in place, but will now introduce major initiatives to increase biofuels and expand public transport, while funding research to curb agricultural emissions, which account for around half the countrys total. Agriculture will also be brought into the emissions trading scheme from 2015.
Smith said that the target would be reviewed in light of future technological advances, but this was not enough for the countrys Green Party, which branded the proposals "unambitious". "It is simply green-washing to tell us they have a target to reduce greenhouse emissions in the distant future when their actions in the present increase emissions," said party co-leader Russel Norman.
He criticised government plans to build new motorways, subsidise irrigation to expand industrial dairy farming and its perceived focus on mining and drilling. "If they were serious about a target they would set milestones that they could be held accountable for, not a target that is 13 electoral cycles away," Norman said.
Source: Apec-vc
