I read this graph as meaningless Cam. To me it says that NZ has slightly reduced our C emissions, but we still could be the greatest producer, though I’m sure we’re not. Have I read it wrong?
Justin Delille
Poor graph, but the point is correct – ETS is a complete waste of time. Unless we can put a bubble around New Zealand to stop Co2 emissions coming from China and USA, there ain’t no advantage to having a ETS, except to heap further cost onto already struggling consumers and businesses. Thought up by politicans who seem to be increasingly disconnected from reality. God help NZ if the greens ever get in government.
It’s true that the graph Cameron posted is not particularly meaningful. The wiki link you provided only measures “carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture, but not emissions from land use such as deforestation.” It does however give a general idea of where we are in the big scheme of things. We don’t do a hell of a lot of deforestation (we grow plenty of pine plantations as we cut them down) and we don’t have a lot of industry. It’s hard to find good stats on the net showing total (including cow farts!) carbon emissions by country in a well presented format but from what I saw, we’re not even in the top 50. We’re down there with the likes of Cuba and the Falkland Islands in terms of carbon emissions.
Rather than making people pay a tax for carbon emissions and putting a burden on business, it would be better to explore positive incentives to reduce emissions (doesn’t need to be financial emissions).
But the green lobby is loud and so we end up with the big hand of government reaching in and grabbing tax cash.
John Q Public
Because apparently when you cut a tree down, all the carbon falls out into the atmosphere……
thor42
It’s a complete waste of time. A large extra cost for absolutely no gain.
Callum
The ETS is solely for trade protection, without it we would be locked out of many trading markets as countries look for other means to protect inefficient local industries as tarriffs are reduced. Simlar to the food miles campaign in the UK, not based in any fact at all. From that basis I support it, environmentally it will do nothing. Unfortunately you can’t tell the public what it is really for.
There’s been a lot of latte-drinking people who have the luxury to contemplate the constitutional niceties. That’s wonderful if you’re not digging sewage out of your own home. — Clayton Cosgrove, http://bit.ly/ccJ2kH
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