Caring about environment good for business say scientists

By SIMON COLLINS

Countries that act first to reduce global warming may get business advantages by showing off as "clean and green", say two visiting scientists.

Kevin Anderson, from Britain's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and Larry Parker, from the United States' Congressional Research Service, believe New Zealand could gain from adopting a carbon tax and other measures before Australia.

"You sell a lot to the European Union. Australia does, too," said Dr Anderson.

"In the longer term, we might start to look at other people and say, 'Why buy off someone who's free-riding'?"

The two scientists conducted a public masterclass science seminar on climate change in Auckland yesterday.

They will also speak in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin in the next week.

Their visit comes as a bill to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change languishes in Parliament, delayed by the recent election.

It is supported by Labour and the Greens, but United Future has said New Zealand should not get ahead of other countries on the issue.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams, criticised successive Governments this week for allowing New Zealand's carbon dioxide emissions to rise 20 per cent from 1990 to 1999.

The Kyoto Protocol would require New Zealand to reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

Dr Anderson said all European Union countries had agreed to ratify Kyoto this year.

For Britain, this was easy, because deregulation of the energy market under former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had devastated coal mining and caused a wholesale shift of electricity production to cheaper natural gas, cutting Britain's greenhouse gases by 15 per cent since 1990.

Dr Parker said US carbon dioxide emissions were running 12 per cent above 1990 levels, and measures taken so far would cut only 1.5 per cent off future increases.

US President George W. Bush has rejected Kyoto because he is worried about the costs to the economy.

For example, a tax on carbon dioxide of US$100 ($216) a tonne would put the price of petrol up from US$1.40 a gallon (80c a litre) to about US$2.40.

Dr Parker said the US spent US$8 billion ($17 billion) a year on subsidies of up to US$100 ($216) a month for commuters who catch public transport to work. But this was insignificant in the total US budget.

Yet many individuals were willing to pay more for "green power" made from renewable sources such as wind.

"The difficulty is that people don't switch at all [between electricity suppliers]. Only 10 per cent switch at all," he said.

"But of those, 15 per cent said they want green power. The average price increase is 2.5USc [5.4c] a kilowatt-hour to go green."

In Britain, Dr Anderson said, so many people had opted to pay about 25 per cent extra on their power bills for green power that there was not enough renewable energy to go round.

He said NZ wine companies, for example, could appeal to this sentiment by putting labels on their bottles saying, "New Zealand has signed up to Kyoto and we care about your environment."

The two men said scientists now accepted that the Earth was getting warmer, and that emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases were contributing to that effect.

"No one argues about the effect of global warming," Dr Anderson said.

"What they argue over is whether the small changes we are making are going to bring about the required changes."

Dr Parker said: "Kyoto is best understood as a very small step - an attempt to say, 'We need to get moving on this'."

Their visit is sponsored by the British Council, the Fulbright Foundation, the Royal Society of New Zealand and Montana Wines.

nzherald.co.nz/climate

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