The Emissions Trading Scheme and the government’s proposed Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Scheme – Forestry Conversions) Amendment Bill, is impacting on rural communities and the public’s outdoor recreation says the Conservative Party.
Helen Houghton, leader of the Conservative Party said the problem is the Emissions Trading Scheme itself that was introduced by the John Key-led National government in 2008 and since amended on several occasions.
“Carbon farming is converting production sheep and beef farms to pine wastelands. Government proposals currently in the pipeline are weak and fail to deal with the real problem i.e.the ETS,” she says.”“The solution is simple – just get rid of it.”
Helen Houghton said productive farms, often family owned, through which trampers, hunters and anglers could get access with permission, were often locked by corporate and investment syndicates erecting locked gates.
The social impact of the ETS and carbon farming is considerable with the change from farm to pine monocultures also causing a decline in employment and a subsequent decline in rural populations and communities.
ETS is Problem
“The ETS is the problem,” says Helen Houghton. “But instead government is making the system more and more complicated, even introducing an annual ballot system to determine which land can be allocated carbon credits for new forest.”
The resignation of the Molesworth station manager with wilding pines and a Department of Conservation proposal to plant pines being cited as a main reason, emphasised the ludicrous situation and government’s confusion.
The proposed change as insane since it would keep the price of carbon credits artificially high while the problem is the market distortion created by the ETS which inflates the value of forestry.
“The fact that Maori land needs to be exempted from the new restrictions to avoid breaching Treaty obligations gives a strong clue about how problematic the whole proposal is.”
Delusion
Helen Houghton said the proposed law was “big government” thinking at its worst. The reality is that it will not stop extreme weather like floods or droughts.
“The only people to benefit from it will be the carbon farming speculators and investors and the corporates who can go on polluting by way of a cheap licence in carbon farming.”
She said it was past time to ditch the delusion of fighting climate change and to stop fear-mongering about extreme weather events. The very recent devastating Motueka valley flood had nothing to do with the delusion created by climate change ideology.
“There was a significant flood in Motueka in February 1877, known as the Old Man Flood or Great Earth Flood that swept through the township of Motueka,” she said. “Climate change and severe events have been happening for centuries.”
Formerly productive farm, a monoculture of pines, owned by a foreign owned forestry corporate
The extent to which carbon dioxide drives global atmosphere is extremely contested in science, although this may not be apparent in politics. It is politically expedient for almost every political party to climb on the Al Gore bandwagon. When I read something like this article by the Conservative Party, I see hope that commonsense may shine forth.
The non-scientific popular political view is that humans change climate. Do we have reason for concern about possible human-induced climate change? A refreshing view from the Conservative Party.
Helen Houghton is right on the button. The solution is as she says – get rid of the ETS. It’s a load of ideological nonsense dreamed up by that mediocre PM John Key to satisfy his corporate trading mates.
There is a biz management case scenario of parents who were fined $20 for not collecting their kids from Day Care at the correct time. Rather than punishing them, offending parents started to exploit this – $20 for an extra hour or two of child minding was cheap! Rather than punishing, the ETS seems to be simply giving offenders a way to assuage guilt and/or cloak themselves in a green cloak, then back to biz as usual. All a big schmozzle. Better to spend the money and time on adaptation and asset hardening.