Posts tagged as:

Nick Smith

The Listener joins the attack

by Bryan Walker 22 February 2010

 “…serious and growing questions over the standards and credibility of the international body whose job it is to determine the scientific truths about climate change.” 
The Listener is not going to be left out.  Ruth Laugesen writes in the current issue that “probes by a variety of international media have uncovered a smattering of poorly [...]

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Copenhagen: opening thoughts

by Gareth 9 December 2009

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.
Delegates at the opening ceremony for COP15 — the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen — had to sit through this video, so I think you should [...]

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Who writes Rodney’s rubbish?

by Gareth 29 November 2009

Who’s this supporting the NZ C”S”C’s idiotic attempt to cast doubt on the NZ temperature record? Why, it’s none other than Rodney Hide, leader of the ACT Party, and Minister of Local Government, Associate Minister of Commerce, Minister of Regulatory Reform and Parliamentary principal climate crank. Hide has written to climate change minister Nick Smith, [...]

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Weakened ETS now law

by Gareth 25 November 2009

The government’s amendments to the Emissions Trading Scheme became law this afternoon, thanks to support from the Maori Party [Stuff, Herald, Reuters]. Nick Smith called the changes “workable and affordable” and said that they struck “the right balance in protecting the future of our economy and our environment”, but Labour climate spokesman Charles Chauvel was [...]

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Oram on ETS debacle: Business Council for Sustainable Development ordered to shut up by big emitters; Nick Smith guilty of “breathtaking hypocrisy”

by Gareth 22 November 2009

Fonterra and other big emitters have used their clout to silence the Business Council for Sustainable Development from commenting on National’s proposed changes to the emissions trading scheme, Rod Oram reveals in his Sunday Star Times column today.
…on November 5 Barry Harris, Fonterra’s head of milk supply and sustainability, delivered a withering speech to the [...]

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Muddled economics ignore reality

by Bryan Walker 4 November 2009

“The analysis of the NZIER in their latest report is muddled and superficial”  Exactly. I was relieved to see this response from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Jan Wright, to the report the NZ Institute for Economic Research has just published on sustainable development priorities.
The report’s findings on climate change are a challenge [...]

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Finding better words

by Bryan Walker 25 October 2009

A sidelight to Gareth’s post about the 4ºC map launched in London last week is the strength of the language used at the event by the Miliband brothers — foreign secretary David (left) and climate change secretary Ed. The Times reported that David Miliband accused the public of lacking a sense of urgency in the [...]

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National snub to Labour on ETS: part 2 – the fallout

by Gareth 14 September 2009

Carbon News has a special update tonight with the gory details of the government’s snub to the Labour opposition on negotiations to amend the emissions trading scheme. CN has also made available the full text of Labour’s proposed memorandum of understanding with the government (PDF) — which reveals that substantial incentives for agriculture were on [...]

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National snubs Labour, buys Maori support for watered-down ETS

by Gareth 14 September 2009

Nick Smith announced this afternoon that National has cut a deal with the Maori Party to support an amended, watered-down emissions trading scheme. Key features (from the press release):

Revised entry dates of 1 July 2010 for transport, energy and industrial sectors and 1 January 2015 for agriculture
A transitional phase until 1 January 2013 with a [...]

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On the eve of destruction

by Bryan Walker 3 September 2009

This column was published in the Waikato Times on 1 September
In September 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from a conference at which Britain and France had agreed to Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. He spoke to a crowd outside Downing Street: “I believe it is peace for our time…And [...]

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