No time to be 'weak kneed' about emissions

New Zealand cannot afford to be "weak kneed" about cutting its greenhouse gas emissions, says a leading United Nations environmental official.

"As four million people living in this fantastic country, you actually have a large carbon footprint," said United Nations Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner.

"If you are going to succeed in meeting the IPCC target of stabilising emissions by 2015, then everyone has to do their bit."

Mr Steiner is one of three international guests in Wellington to mark World Environment Day.

Also visiting is Kiribati President Anote Tong and the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri.

The eyes of the international environmental community will be on New Zealand as it hosts the UN-backed event for the first time.

Yesterday, Mr Steiner said New Zealand had to face up to cutting its emissions, which per head were higher than China's.

International tourists were already thinking twice about travelling to New Zealand because of the carbon footprint, he said.

Mr Steiner said New Zealand's high rate of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions was "simply another factor you have to deal with".

He said political criticism of the Government's emissions trading scheme was a democratic right, but should be backed with alternatives.

Dr Pachauri had a simple message for climate change sceptics: "Please read the science." "I think the evidence is so strong we would be ignoring it at our own peril and the peril of all living species."

President Tong said rising sea levels could soon force the evacuation of Kiribati citizens. He was planning to seek additional aid for skills training from New Zealand.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said her talks with Mr Tong would focus on New Zealand's aid programme for Kiribati, as well as wider Pacific issues. Kiribati would receive $6 million in aid over the 2008-09 financial year.

- © Fairfax NZ News