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The Green Party is facing a
difficult decision over whether to lend its support to the Emissions Trading
Scheme.
“At the beginning of this process we said we wanted to be as open
about these negotiations as we could be and now we have reached a point where
the Green Party caucus has to make a decision about this next Tuesday and we
would like some feedback from New Zealanders before we do,” Co-Leader
Jeanette Fitzsimons says.
“We set out to achieve a number of things, such as including transport and
agriculture into the scheme earlier, a fund to insulate homes to keep power
bills down, targets for emissions reduction and support for new innovations that
offer significant carbon reduction.
“What really mattered about this scheme was that is was fair to New Zealanders
and effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Throughout the negotiation
process we have kept this at the forefront of our minds. If we don’t get these
things right, the huge wealth transfers that the ETS creates will be both unfair
and ineffectual.
“On some of the issues we have not been able to make progress. We have not been
able to get agreement to phase in transport instead it will come in in one lump
in 2011, so this has not changed. We have made very little progress on
agriculture but we are still talking about this. Very importantly we have not
found a way for Government to accept a biodiversity standard to ensure that
planting pines does not destroy biodiversity.
“On the other hand, it appears there will be substantial financial assistance to
help people make their houses warm and dry. We have also made good progress on
ensuring that the ETS does not lock our economy into old technology and that
there is room for innovation. There will be better rules about allocation plans.
“We are now keen to hear from New Zealanders any views they have before we make
our decision on Tuesday.”
People can email their opinions to
ets@greens.org.nz
For other Green Party news items go to http://www.greens.org.nz/
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