Subscribe to RSSElectrification Won’t Save The Planet!
The Government today announced a long-term target of a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases emissions from 1990 levels by 2050.
Are they serious?
Environment Minster Nick Smith says this “strikes the right balance. It has New Zealand doing our fair share and is comparable with the targets set by our major trading partners.”
Smith listed as ways the economy would change to help as being electrification of Auckland rail.
Now that really does feel like grasping at straws. Much more needs to be done and an upgrade of Auckland’s train set was needed anyway.
Greens co-leader Dr Russel Norman is critical not just of the target but “the fact the government hasn’t taken any steps that would help us get there — in fact they are doing the opposite.
“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.
For example, they’re spending billions on new motorways that will increase the oil-dependent transport of people and freight.”
The thirst for new motorways never ends in NZ
The Greens say the UN IPCC, the scientific advisory body on climate change, has stated that industrialised countries (including New Zealand) need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 80-95% by 2050.
2 Comments
Setting a target means nothing without taking steps to achieve it. 50% by 2050 is an extremely harsh target and will require dramatic steps to achieve it.
50% is the smoke screen, not the story. Not committing to a result until 2050 is the story - let’s say something nice to get people off our back as none of us (the politicians) will be here in 2030, let alone 2050 so we don’t have to worry about it or about doing anything.
They only way to get reductions now is to issue a compulsory score card of real achievements 4 weeks before every election.