Paris agreement in force – now what?

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, November 5th, 2016 - 13 comments
Categories: accountability, climate change, global warming, International, national - Tags: , , , ,

The Paris agreement on climate change is now in force:

Paris climate change agreement enters into force

Environment groups hail ‘momentous occasion’ but warn governments need to cut carbon emissions more steeply to avoid dangerous global warming

The Paris agreement on climate change enters into force on Friday, marking the first time that governments have agreed legally binding limits to global temperature rises. …

Too little too late, but it’s what we have for now. New Zealand is bound by the agreement:

NZ ratifies Paris climate change agreement

New Zealand has ratified the Paris Agreement to combat climate change.

It has formally submitted its emissions reduction target of 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Too little too late, but it’s what we have for now.

Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett said New Zealand wanted to be part of the first tranche of countries pushing the agreement through. … “This really does show a commitment.”

However, she said New Zealand’s target of reducing emissions to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 was very ambitious.

“We’re not going to meet it unless we make changes.

No we aren’t. So what changes are going to be made? Specifically, with what timetable, and with what analysis that shows that they will enable us to meet our commitment?

“At the moment we’ve got a number of pieces of work going on where we really start getting into the nuts and bolts of how we reduce our emissions and play our part worldwide,” Mrs Bennett said.

Time to front up, time to act. What are the plans for reducing emissions? How does support for continued coal mining and oil exploration, building more motorways, excluding agriculture from the ETS, reverting from electric back to diesel trains, the use of phony carbon credits and the like, how does that all fit in with reducing emissions?

13 comments on “Paris agreement in force – now what? ”

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  1. Draco T Bastard 1
    5 November 2016 at 9:21 am

    What are the plans for reducing emissions?

    From this government? None

    They’re planning on using more fake carbon credits and changing the accounting rules to make it look like we’re reducing emissions.

    It’s called lying and this government does it all the time.

  2. Heather Grimwood 2
    5 November 2016 at 11:13 am

    …..and everyone who understands the world ‘s plight knows that the Paris agreement falls far short of what is needed.
    My plea is that the signing doesn’t act as a security blanket to those not aware of need for urgency .
    My fear is that the government will bask in the fact that they have finally done the deed of signing, and do no more.

  3. KJT 3
    5 November 2016 at 11:33 am

    Joke.

    Nationals efforts to date. Build more roads, issue more prospecting licenses, sign the TPPA, exempt agriculture from carbon pricing and cut subsidies to renewable energy

    • Heather Grimwood 3.1
      5 November 2016 at 11:42 am

      To KJT at 3: Maybe I should have ended my input thus ” and continue on their fast downward path of hastening our planet’s ruin. “

      • Draco T Bastard 3.1.1
        5 November 2016 at 1:52 pm

        Yep, anything and everything to get slightly more profit for the rich.

        • Garibaldi 3.1.1.1
          5 November 2016 at 4:21 pm

          I think it is pretty obvious, even when the Paris accord was signed, that we are so entrenched in bloody Capitalism that we cannot extricate ourselves and will steam into the iceberg just like the Titanic. We are too dumb to wake up and face the reality of climate change.

  4. Psycho Milt 4
    5 November 2016 at 12:14 pm

    Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett said New Zealand wanted to be part of the first tranche of countries pushing the agreement through. … “This really does show a commitment.”

    Er, no it doesn’t. It really does show that talk is cheap. Actually doing something would show a commitment. (For the record: although the government’s existing policy of using fake carbon credits to pretend that it’s meeting its emissions reduction obligations does technically constitute “doing something,” it shows a commitment only to scamming voters. Bennett clearly implies a different type of commitment in her statement.)

  5. pat 5
    5 November 2016 at 12:19 pm

    meeting even those insufficient Paris targets looks to be unlikely…..we would appear to have company in sidestepping meaningful action

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/03/greece-set-to-win-175m-from-eu-climate-scheme-to-build-two-coal-plants

  6. adam 6
    5 November 2016 at 12:55 pm

    National, the party of do nothing, then bring out the spin doctors to make it look like they changed the world!

  7. Keith 7
    5 November 2016 at 5:39 pm

    Paula is not one of Gods most straight up creatures now is she?

    “…we’ve got a number of pieces of work going on where we really start getting into the nuts and bolts of how we reduce our emissions and play our part worldwide”………..

    …..meaning, “We are just putting the finishing touches to the most creative accounting since Bernie Madoff. Fraudulent carbon credit anyone?” That is if one is to accept the Morgan Foundations research and why wouldn’t you and the fact the National Party is blocking their OIA requests because they are so so proud of their achievements to be world leaders in emission reduction.

    Given bovine agriculture is one of THE most damaging emission producers, not to mention it is poisoning the environment and National exclude it from the ETS I found it impossible to believe National will do anything but cook the books. That and their track record of cooking the books, like those silly formerly classified unemployed people who are still unemployed but look for work via the internet!

  8. Gristle 8
    5 November 2016 at 8:49 pm

    The Paris Accord is nice. But let’s assume that every government is behaving exactly like the NZ Government. Cheat,manipulate,procrastinate obscure as much as they want. Unfortunately this behaviour can kiss goodbye to 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 degrees C….. even as aspirational targets.

    Further, even if the Accord was being adhered to, the Accord leaves aviation and shipping outside of the arrangements. (The 16 largest commercial ships produce as much sulphur dioxide as 800 million cars – not really a greenhouse gas but really helps with acid rain.)

    Who is looking to overachieve?

  9. esoteric pineapples 9
    5 November 2016 at 11:45 pm

    I think we should be talking now about the future prosecution of leaders of countries who don’t do anything serious about climate change,

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