Consumers will drive the debate on climate

OPINION:  In March this year I was at Westminster as part of a study course on Parliamentary practice, writes Eric Roy (National) in this week's From the Beehive.

As an add-on, we had a couple of presentations on climate change.

There seem to be two drivers to action. The first is that the science seems to be a constant matter of debate, and second is the reaction of the consumer. In the past decade there has been a significant move by the consumer to be selective (especially on high-priced goods) to environmentally sound practices, sustainable harvest practice and animal welfare issues.

Consider how some publicity stopped the practice of mulesing merino sheep. I was told that all of the big food retailers in the UK are now developing a branding approach to greenhouse gas footprints. I'm told that TESCOs is expected to spend 400 million (NZ$910 million) branding 110,000 different food items with such information. Even if this figure is exaggerated twofold this is a huge amount of money, but their market research shows that it will give them a market edge.

For that reason, we should be a little encouraged that the wheels have fallen off the plans for an emissions trading scheme by our biggest competitor, Australia. Thirty-five years ago we were embroiled in a debate about whether we should comply with new and stringent rules that were being implemented for international movement of food items. We all knew that domestically in the UK a different standard was in use. We chose to clad all the internal walls of our meat works and change a raft of processes to comply. The net result is that we have access for 260,000 tons of sheepmeat equivalent into the EU, one of the highest paying markets in the world. Australia has 17,000 tons.

We constantly fight for access and approval of our products. A new twist is the power of consumer choice. As a producer and indirect exporter of almost all that my farm produces I don't see an option but to engage in debate that was not of my choosing on climate change. Though I have been interested in the matter for more than a decade and have read as much as I can on both sides of the debate, I still think the industrial age is adding to a natural cycle of global warming.

One of the safeguards of an emissions trading scheme is that if the sceptics are right and our affinity with combusting fossil fuels is having no effect, we can expect that carbon credits would be worth very little. We could then up with a commitment to buy credits that are worth nothing,

On the other hand, if there is an issue we are in the game with a credible and affordable scheme.

» Eric Roy is the National Party electorate MP for Invercargill.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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