Your July 19 article in which East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick responded to criticism of the Government’s draft emissions plan had her promising: “The Government will work hard to address climate issues and emissions, we just have a different approach to it”; the plan “showed the Government could grow the economy and deliver on the country’s climate change commitments”; “We still have plenty of work to do to reduce emissions and deliver on climate change. We are committed to meeting our emissions budgets and climate change targets, including net zero by 2050,” she said.
How can that be true when her Government has announced its intention to repeal Labour’s ban on new gas and oil exploration (beyond onshore Taranaki)? Plus, National wishes to keep agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme, and its Fast-track Approvals Bill will allow three ministers – Chris Bishop, Shane Jones and Simeon Brown – to approve projects that have previously been stopped by the courts because of their environmental impact.
Please stop pretending our small country’s emissions make no difference. On a per-person basis, NZ/Aotearoa remains the 4th or 5th highest GHG emitter in the OECD.
Our local MP misleads us – the Government is not working hard to address climate issues and emissions. It is doing the opposite. The many thousands of people demonstrating against the fast-track bill show that.
Bill McGuire may be right. As this week’s temperatures indicate, our world may be locked on course to become a hothouse of our own making.
The way to prove McGuire’s Hothouse Earth theory wrong is to reduce our emissions as soon as possible.
Bob Hughes
Money for meddling
Re: Reversing speed cuts (July 24), I guess an extra $100 million of borrowing over the next five years will allow the Gisborne District Council to continue to administer wokeness of this nature, with no respect to the cost of all these efforts to slow down motorists.
Does the GDC really want to borrow more money so it can waste it on speed humps, cameras and road signs? Look at what has happened to the health department, ie overspending by $130m a month. Have services improved?
I would like an assurance from the mayor and CEO that existing services are being provided within the rates budget right now. If they can prove that, their cries for more borrowing might get some attention but for now I remain convinced that the GDC is addicted to spending more than it is earning. Maybe Anne Tolley can also be our commissioner?
I ask LGNZ: how does borrowing more money get any council in New Zealand to net zero? The interest bill on borrowed money does not point to net zero. The interest rate on hundreds of millions points to bankruptcy.
At, say, 5%, the yearly interest bill on the $145m that the GDC has already ticked up comes to about $7m spread between 20,000-odd ratepayers, and that is without repaying any principal. The GDC wants to increase that to $248m!
Where are ratepayers supposed to get that kind of money? Where is the “wellbeing” in an ever-growing interest bill like that?
No human can fight climate change, so what is the logic of borrowing to “fight climate change”? We must endure climate change by living within our means and using our dollars productively, on real services instead of debt servicing.
Climate change will not alter its path one way or the other just because the GDC chooses to bankrupt us back to the Stone Age by borrowing to build bridges to nowhere. That is akin to using borrowed money to clear the beach, only to wake up the next morning to see the beach “rewilded”.
Peter Jones
Responding to Feds
Re: Farmers welcome emissions bill (July 17), the Regional Policy Statement (RPS) for the Wellington region does not set up a GHG consenting regime for farmers. The RPS includes aspirational greenhouse gas reduction targets that seek to ensure the management, use and protection of natural and physical resources in the region contribute to 2030 and 2050 regional GHG emission targets – these are not limits nor intended as an allocation regime between different sectors.
The climate change provisions work to support the Wellington region to transform over time into a low-emission and climate-resilient region, focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the resilience of communities and nature to the effects of climate change.
A focus for the agriculture sector is the development of a targeted climate change extension programme to actively promote and support changes to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and increase rural land use resilience to climate change. This will leverage off existing rural networks and work programmes, such as the riparian and erosion programmes and development of farm plans.
While central government is taking the lead on policy/pricing to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, the RPS includes complementary policies, setting a baseline expectation that changes in land use or management practices should avoid an increase in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and that these should be reduced where practicable.
The final recommended provisions to the RPS will be presented for discussion at a council workshop on September 5, with final signoff of the RPS Change 1 document at the September 26 council meeting.
Lian Butcher, Greater Wellington environment group manager
Out of touch
When I read articles from Manu Caddie, I breathe a sigh of relief he is no longer on the council. I listened to Meng Foon’s submission to the council: the only comment he raised was having some tarseal done outside his property.
I believe there are still many on our council who are completely out of touch or do not care about the 30% rate increase over the next three years and our increasing debt burden. Tony Robinson even stated changes to Grey St were just the start.
We need to make sure that, come the next GDC elections, we have people who will represent our community’s best interest because we sure have not got them on our council at present!
Barbara Callender
