The international scientific body established to provide guidance to the climate change negotiators has just finalised its fifth assessment report. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reflects the vast majority of scientists in concluding that climate change is caused by our economic activity and if we don’t reduce emissions quickly, the consequences will be severe.
Extreme weather conditions like cyclones and intense storms are more likely. Together with a greater likelihood of droughts, flooding and unpredictable seasons, our world faces real threats to our food supplies, freshwater systems and communities. These impacts are already being felt, but the report describes how the impacts will become catastrophic if we don’t act quickly. Now it’s up to the politicians to respond.
Governments have undertaken to finalise a global agreement by the end of next year. But negotiations have dragged on since 2007. All countries will be affected by climate change and all will need to take action. But as negotiators from India and other developing countries have reminded us, the onus should be on countries like the US, EU and New Zealand to go furthest because they have greater wealth and they are responsible for most of the emissions to date. The poorest countries have emitted the least but are bearing most of the impact.
The EU has just committed to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gases by 40% since 1990 (the base year). But countries like New Zealand and the US are lagging far behind. Despite our clean, green reputation our government has said we will reduce our emissions by only 5%. And the reality is that our emissions have continued to climb rather than decline. We are on track to double our emissions within two decades. The Green Party has proposed a number of measures to invest in rail, buses and cycling, replace coal-fired power with renewable energy and provide incentives for farmers to reduce emissions from dairy farming. These are sound policies and would contribute to a better quality of life for us all.
We are not living up to our responsibilities as a country. The Climate Change summit in Lima, Peru starts on 1st December. It is time for our government to step up to the climate change challenge.
Barry Coates was a Green Party candidate for Mt Roskill and almost an MP. He was formerly Executive Director of Oxfam New Zealand and has more than 20 years experience of international negotiations on climate change. He has a Masters degree in management from Yale University.