Parties joust over climate targets

The Government has deliberately overstated the costs to households of cutting emissions, Labour says.

Labour yesterday accused the Government of using "dubious and misleading tactics" to divert public attention from a "cop-out" over its pollution reduction target.

The Government has announced it will set a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of between 10 and 20 per cent below 1990 levels at climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany.

Prime Minister John Key says that target will cost every New Zealander about $1400 a year, or about $27 a week, in lost income by 2020, and if the Government had opted for the 40 per cent reduction Greenpeace had wanted, the cost would have been far greater.

Labour climate change spokesman Charles Chauvel said yesterday that the Government's calculations were wrong.

He said the cost of the emissions target would not be absorbed in one year, 2020, but spread over the next 10 years. The cost for each person would be about $145 a year, or about $2.80 a week.

"Kiwis need to ask why the Government is setting out to frighten them," Chauvel said.

"The answer surely is that this timid and short-sighted Government is too frightened to stand up to business and agriculture pressure groups ..."

Greenpeace said it would not give up on its campaign for a more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions target. "They have fired a dart and the dart hasn't even hit the dartboard," spokesman Simon Boxer said.

Key said the target was a fair one, and the Government stood by its costings.

He said a 10 to 20 per cent reduction was close to Australia and other countries and well above the United States.

"Ultimately, this is New Zealand's starting point. The really interesting negotiations will be the ones they hold when everyone gets together in Copenhagen later this year."

The Employers and Manufacturers Association said the costs faced by businesses under the plan were a significant challenge.

"It's the price we are being told in effect we need to pay nearly 5 per cent of gross domestic product to retain access to world markets, mostly for our agricultural products," chief executive Alasdair Thompson said. "This is more than the total of all our lamb, beef and other meat exports. It represents about 60 per cent of our total dairy exports."

- © Fairfax NZ News