Yesterday China and America announced a landmark carbon deal:
US and China strike deal on carbon cuts in push for global climate pact
The United States and China have unveiled a secretly negotiated deal to reduce their greenhouse gas output, with China agreeing to cap emissions for the first time and the US committing to deep reductions by 2025.
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China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, has agreed to cap its output by 2030 or earlier if possible. Previously China had only ever pledged to reduce the rapid rate of growth in its emissions. Now it has also promised to increase its use of energy from zero-emission sources to 20% by 2030. The United States has pledged to cut its emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025.
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[Obama] “This is a major milestone in US-China relations and shows what is possible when we work together on an urgent global challenge.”
Yesterday the small island nations begged the world for help:
Unite or drown: Campaign against climate change
The president of the Seychelles has urged the planet’s small island nations to unite for an unprecedented campaign against climate change or else drown. The rallying call came at the start of a two-day summit of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a coalition of small island and low-lying coastal countries, to prepare for global climate talks to take place in Lima, Peru in December.
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“Let us be heard on every beach and every roadside. Let us be heard in Beijing, in Delhi, in Johannesburg, in London, in Moscow, in New York, in Paris, in Rio. Let us be heard in every village, in every town, in every city of the world. Let us be heard on the airwaves,” he said. “We cannot accept that climate change be treated as an inevitability. We cannot accept that any island be lost to sea level rise. We cannot accept that our islands be submerged by the rising oceans.”
Yesterday our Ministry for the Environment released its Briefing for Incoming Ministers, highlighting just how appalling NZ’s record is. Generation Zero sums up:
MfE briefing highlights urgent need for Climate Change Act
The projections show that under current policy settings, New Zealand’s annual net emissions (including forestry) will rise rapidly to over 100 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2025; an increase of more than 50% above 1990 levels. This is at odds with the Government’s own unconditional emissions targets of 5% below 1990 levels by 2020, and 50% below 1990 levels by 2050.
“These latest figures and warnings from the Ministry for the Environment show once again that the Government has no plan to reduce New Zealand’s carbon pollution,” says Generation Zero policy spokesperson Paul Young.
“Despite the increasingly stark warnings from climate scientists and the promises to do our fair share, it’s all talk and no action. Not only is this morally reprehensible, it is economically dumb and it will cost us.”
Here’s another pertinent graph:
One of the first things the Nats did on achieving office in 2008 was to gut the Emissions Trading Scheme. They are stupid, greedy, shortsighted, irresponsible, short-term thinkers, negligent of their global responsibilities.
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