Key should go to Copenhagen
John Key should go to Copenhagen.
The upcoming international meeting on climate change is too important for New Zealand's representation to be left to Nick Smith and Tim Groser, capable though I'm sure these ministers are.
And no, in case you're wondering, I haven't been swayed by the lovely Lucy Lawless's appearance at Parliament yesterday brandishing a boarding pass for Key's plane trip.
Although I do think Greenpeace's campaign to get him to go has been very clever, and quite effective.
It's just that Key has run through the gamut of excuses for why he can't, shouldn't, or won't go.
First, he said it wasn't a leaders' meeting, so it would be inappropriate to attend. Then the Danish PM invited all leaders to go.
Then he said no one else was sending heads of state - it was a trade and climate change ministers' meeting. But now some 40 world leaders including Kevin Rudd, Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown, and possibly even Barack Obama are heading to Denmark.
Then Key said there wouldn't be any binding commitments made there, so it wasn't worth it. But now there are suggestions that the US might make some big symbolic concessions at the meeting to force just such a deal.
Yesterday, Key said he couldn't justify burning the carbon emissions necessary to get there. This is starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. He could argue this for any overseas trip.
I appreciate he's had a hectic international schedule, and that he'll only just have got back from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad. But frankly, this is more important than the biennial meet of the old boys' club of the Commonwealth.
As much as anything else there is symbolism in the NZ PM being at Copenhagen, whether or not any new deal is signed. It's a sign that we take climate change seriously. Given how consumed the Government is about getting the ETS through Parliament come hell or high water, it's odd he wouldn't want to be there.
Sorry, John, you need to go. But hey, think of the airpoints.
Meanwhile, there's an interesting dichotomy between the Government's rhetoric on climate change and its eagerness to release billions of tonnes of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere.
Gerry "sexy coal'' Brownlee has donned his prospector's hat again - this time he sees black gold in the seas off our coast.
Oil finds off the coast are nothing new, of course. We've had drilling off Taranaki since 1959, and Maui and Tui in particular have been very productive.
It was news to me to find out yesterday that oil was our third-largest export earner in 2008, after dairy and meat. That means we earned more from selling oil than tourism. Strange to think of New Zealand as a Saudi Arabia of the South Seas.
The sort of oil deposits Gerry is talking of would put anything we've found so far in the shade, of course. We're talking six billion barrels of oil, enough to turn New Zealand into the Lucky Country of the 21st century.
The new-found enthusiasm of our energy minister for digging things up comes soon after his plan to mine parts of the conservation estate, again for the immense value of the minerals thought to be contained under the Southern Alps.
It's no surprise the Government is jumping up and down about this. It's all very well banging on about raising productivity and value-adding and niche marketing and becoming smarter and better and faster and ... blah, blah, blah.
If there really is that much oil sloshing around our shores then all that stuff becomes unnecessary - well, for a while, anyway. It would certainly wipe out the deficit and push the books well into the black, if you'll excuse the pun. Heck, if Norway can do it...
Of course it's much more difficult to access than simply sinking a few drilling rigs into some sand, but the technology certainly exists these days. The British have pioneered the art.
And if Gerry needs a bit of help, he could always call on his ministerial colleague Rodney Hide, who along with ACT benchmate David Garrett has a bit of experience working on oil rigs in the North Sea.
Thanks to the rules of the international emissions marketplace, the greenhouse gas emissions this oil would produce would be someone else's problem, as long as we sold the oil overseas.
But last time I looked the Earth was round, rather than flat, so presumably there's just the one atmosphere too. Sooner or later we're going to have to find other solutions besides burning fossil fuels.
I don't blame Gerry for wanting to get on board in the short term, though. The money is just too good.
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Of course Key doesn't want to go.
The All Blacks don't play in Copenhagen. Nor does David Letterman.
He became Prime Minister to get things autographed, not to get things done.
Colin - "The sort of oil deposits Gerry is talking of would put anything we've found so far in the shade, of course. We're talking six billion barrels of oil, enough to turn New Zealand into the Lucky Country of the 21st century."
Sorry mate, according to my Toxic Green Leader Jeanz Fitz, digging this oil will add to the global warming and New Zealand being the world leader in climate control, we should give up this wealth and instead ride on horses and eat grass. We are destined to be the banana republic of the South Seas. How come when Oz digs nobody complains?
Coming back to the topic of Emperor's junket to Copenhagen, my master has this plan. He wants the ticket to be supplied by Lawless (Is Lucy Lawless the opposite of Michal Laws?? Laws – Lawless, get it Mike/Murray?). He will then go to Copenhagen to meet the European Communists and discuss Global Warming. His plan is to introduce GWT (Global Warming Tax) on all nations.
Kiwis – Fill Gap is about to end the 20 year consensus on monetary policy. Basically he is out of ideas and looking for some cheap headlines to stay afloat. He is irrelevant.
Where is my Thief of Baghdad and his summer BBQ plans? He has never spoken a single word in Parliament. I have thought of a line for Thief of Baghdad.
“Yawn - The only time when Thief of Baghdad ever gets to open his mouth.”
Until China and India sign up to a global climate deal, why on earth would NZ/Aussie even bother. NZ Emissions for a whole year would be the equivalent of China or India in 1 day?...less possibly?
Waste of time
Business as usual will not save us from ourselves. Without a livable planet there is no economy. By not going to Copenhagen Key looks like a quitter - go to Copenhagen John no matter how challenging it is & engage with this issue! The following generations depend on meningful political engagement with climate change issues.
Key should go to Copenhagen, then swing by Norway for a bit of research.
Since John key is clearly an 'All the way with the USA' Internationalist and Obama wants to sign the new binding ETS plan, Key ought to go. Key, English, Groser and Smith are all notable globalists. And the banks own National policy - noting that this cabinet won't limit or inspect them in any way. While it's expected that Nats lean towards foreign big biz and Finance, their backing of all the World Socialist/UN agendas like ETS and PC-'Anti Smacking police state' policy has been a revelation.
But not really, if you expect there'll be string pulling, and realise that the Big Banks, who created the Crash, are in charge and set up all these World front organisations ( UN and IMF-1944, World Bank, BIS, WTO etc ) to arrive at a world government ( capital - Jerusalem). The ETS schemes are an obvious setup - putting everyone into mutual debt and exasperation, with big compliance issues, more costs, a powerful world bureaucracy with 'search and detain' powers since your cows and trees behaviour might be threatening the universe. And we'll all be on a central Euro computer network, with maps of farms, and running the Emmissions Units - which will soon default to a world currency. And the banks and friends will make fortunes forever trading the Carbon Credits.
And now.....just when you think the whole Copenhagen exercise is pointless, turns out that there's sweeping powers for a world government in the big World ETS bill !!! That's the point. America already has dangerous fascist law in waiting - thanks to its Patriot Acts ( courtesy of the CIA's 911 exercise ). They are now being systematically destroyed by their banks, with mass foreclosure, and we don't need a free trade pact with all that....denominated in a US Dollar that's being devalued and destroyed. If they sign up at Copenhagen, they are open to a military takeover by UN and even US troops ( formerly illegal ). And if we sign up we are likewise !!!! Only takes an arranged crisis , eg from Muslim radicals ( why we shouldn't be in Afghanistan or Iraq )....or Maori radicals..... and we'll have emergency law and UN troops called in. There goes freedom.
So Phil Goff wants to go back to Muldoon type exchange controls does he? Someone tell him that such thinking is archaically stupid and naive, but he has to say something I suppose. Nobody else in Labour is saying anything. As for John Key going to Copenhagen, why should he go, just another talkfest for "heads of state", and just because "Krudd" from Oz is going to escape the heat at home, doesn't mean John Key needs to sgo just to see Barack Obama again. As for "Xena the Warrior Princess", well any publicity for ahas been actress is gonna be good publicity isn't it?
eddie #4 Agree. Lets start digging. $100billion of oil is worth it.
I notice that Bob Beresford manages to refer to at least four global conspiracies in his email - anyone for any more?
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John. Nick and Gerry going to an environment conference would be a joke. These guys have a combined environmental mindset that only manages to get to 1980. A photo op with Obama or a big time banker might sway Key though.