Smith to detail carbon targets

Climate Change Minister Nick Smith says he will be making announcements in the next few days related to the greenhouse gas reductions New Zealand should be aiming for by 2020.

His associate minister in the portfolio, Trade Minister Tim Groser, is expected to take a New Zealand target to continuing climate change talks in Bonn in late August, in the run-up to a global post-Kyoto deal being agreed in Copenhagen in December.

Mr Smith told the local government and environment select committee at Parliament today that his announcements would be about providing a public consultation process for setting the crucial target.

The National Party promised in last year's election campaign to legislate for a target of 50 percent reduction in carbon emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2050.

"We're saying New Zealand needs to be doing its fair share around the increase in emissions," Mr Smith said today. Because the nation's emissions have increased by 25 percent since 1990, "that means doing considerably more than we have over the past couple of decades".

The United Nations' climate panel has blamed human activities, led by burning fossil fuels, for warming which it says will being more intense weather events, including droughts, heatwaves, floods and will lift sea levels.

Scientists on the panel have said world emissions of greenhouse gases will need to peak by about 2015 and then fall sharply to limit a rise in global temperatures to no more than 2degC above pre-industrial times. Rises above 2degC are expected to significantly increase damage done to both populations and economies.

Developing nations want to see developed economies such as New Zealand's set targets for reductions of 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

But some developed nations have said such cuts -- meant to avert the worst impacts of global warming -- will cripple their economies.

Developing nations led by China and India say rich economies should aim for at least 40 percent cuts, and small island nations -- including some of New Zealand's neighbours in the South Pacific -- want cuts of at least 45 percent.

But US President Barack Obama wants to cut US emissions only back to 1990 levels by 2020, with a target of 80 percent below by 2050, while Japan is aiming for a 2020 target of just 8 percent below 1990 levels.

- NZPA