Nick Smith

The Minister’s chart-junk part 2

by Mr February September 21, 2011

Simon Johnson guest posts on the mysterious number of emissions units allocated to emitters and a junk chart in the Ministry for the Environment’s Report on the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. You may recall that I previously commented on the low quality of data presentation in the Ministry for the Environment report Report on [...]

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The NZ ETS Review 2011: Clear signals for business as usual

by Mr February September 16, 2011

Simon Johnson’s guest post offers prompt comment on the ETS review. Minister for Climate Change Issues Nick Smith has finally released the delayed report of the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme Review 2011. The 98-page report is titled Doing New Zealand’s Fair Share, The Emissions Trading Scheme Review 2011. The review panel chaired by former Rogernome [...]

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The over-allocated units in the Report on the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme

by Mr February August 11, 2011

Simon Johnson continues his series of guest posts looking at the Australian and New Zealand carbon pricing schemes. Finally I have got past the chartjunk and I have read the Report on the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme that Minister for Climate Change Issues Nick Smith released on 1 August 2011. Perhaps the first point [...]

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The NZ ETS Review 2011 and the Minister’s Kyoto Chartjunk

by Mr February August 5, 2011

In a previous guest post Simon Johnson looked at the new Australian carbon pricing scheme. Here he begins to examine the report on how the New Zealand scheme is faring. A few days ago I was intending to carefully read the Report on the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme that Minister for Climate Change Issues [...]

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Hansen in NZ: final roundup

by Gareth June 5, 2011

Here’s a high quality video of Jim Hansen’s talk at the University of Canterbury last month (excellent work by the audiovisual team at UC). Well worth watching, if only because it provides a succinct summary of Hansen’s current thinking. As Dr. Chuck Kutscher of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US said: If you [...]

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From science to ethics to action

by Bryan Walker May 27, 2011

I’ve been reading the admirably lucid report of the Australian Climate Commission which Gareth highlighted recently, and reflecting on its restrained exposition of the current state of the science. One couldn’t ask for a clearer or more accessible statement within its 70 page range. At the same time I’ve started reading a book by philosopher [...]

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Hansen’s parting shot: show leadership, John Key

by Gareth May 26, 2011

Before he left New Zealand, Jim Hansen wrote an open letter to prime minister John Key on behalf of the youth of New Zealand, and specifically 350.org. It’s well worth reading in full, because it encapsulates the case for taking action here, and now. I would be most interested in seeing a meaningful response from [...]

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No turning back by Fed Farmers heroes

by Doug Mackie May 4, 2011

This, from Don Nicolson, president of Federated Farmers, appropriately titled In denial over denial, slipped under the radar last week while I was watching the ACT car crash. Recently Climate Change Minister Dr Nick Smith added another target — a 50 percent reduction below 1990 levels by 2050. When these targets are missed I doubt [...]

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A ton too far (more bad news)

by Gareth April 12, 2011

At the Climate Futures Forum in Wellington a couple of weeks ago, David Karoly discussed the idea of considering carbon emissions as a “stock” problem, not a “flow” problem. If we want to give ourselves a 75 percent chance of coming in below a 2ºC rise in the global average temperature, then we (as in [...]

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Routefinding the future: reflecting on the climate futures forum

by Gareth April 5, 2011

Two busy days in Te Papa last week, and a lot to think about. The Climate Futures Forum organised by the Climate Change Research Institute at VUW was fascinating and disturbing in equal measure. Fascinating because it’s hard not to be interested when a lot of very smart people are feeding you information, and disturbing [...]

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