Terry Sarten: Green with envy at what Germany's doing

Regular readers of this column will know I am in Germany at the moment. Over the past week we have travelled around one little corner of Europe - the Black Forest area, a tiny slice of France and a small sliver of Switzerland. It is spring here and everything is green, including aspects of legislation.

In Germany we have seen a huge number of houses with solar panels on their roofs. This is linked to the phasing out of nuclear power and government policy that encourages renewable energy. When applying to build a house it is a requirement that at least one source of renewable energy is included in the plans. This is reinforced by legislation that requires power companies to buy back excess power generated by households, making it worthwhile to invest in household energy efficiency. Contrast this with NZ power companies. They are only interested in extracting money from consumers.

While waiting at a railway station we saw a car pull up to a marked space and watched the driver get a cable from the boot, plug it into a socket in the bonnet then into a kerbside box to recharge his electric car.

The proud car owner told us it takes two hours to recharge and then he and his wife walked off into the town centre to do their shopping. Apparently the town of Tiengen provides this recharging service for free.

We were told by people in the region that the water in their rivers and lakes is very clean and safe for swimming. They were very surprised that we cannot take that for granted in NZ. Near the town where we have been staying there is an area that has been restored to its original state as a wetland reserve. Water has been allowed to flow back in and with it has come a host of birds and other wildlife. This seems so astonishing in a country of more than 80 million where pressure on space is a critical issue.

I was told that farmers are paid to let the grass grow long in many areas. This is done to enable wild flowers to flourish, providing a welcoming environment for the bees, on whom so much of nature depends, to pollinate and promote new growth across the land. This is made easier because most German farmers keep their cows indoors, bringing in the mown grass and taking out the effluent to spread on the fields. The notion that you could be paid to let the grass grow is one that NZ farmers would probably be keen on right now. It may be of some comfort to them to know that German farmers are also lamenting the low return for their milk.

As well as being a bit green with envy over the future-focused environmental approach of Germany, we were also fascinated by the subject of a referendum to be held in Switzerland in June. One of the questions the Swiss will vote on is a proposal to introduce a minimum guaranteed income. This would replace a range of social financial support with a set figure for every citizen regardless of whether they are working or not. Supporters see this as a way to reduce the costs of managing a wide range of social payments, compared with a single payment to administer. Whether the Swiss vote in favour of a minimum income for all citizens in June will be watched with great interest by a lot of countries. I imagine the NZ government will be one of them. Certainly the Prime Minister is keen that we should become the Switzerland of the South Pacific.

-Terry Sarten is a Whanganui-based writer, musician and satirist - feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz