Editorial: Key must go to Copenhagen

OPINION: Prime Minister John Key's shilly-shallying over whether or not to attend this weekend's United Nations Copenhagen Climate Conference is puzzling.

Certainly, his party has done all the groundwork necessary to put the best possible foot forward at Copenhagen. National, with Maori Party support, rammed through a revised Emissions Trading Scheme with unseemly haste in order to have something it liked in place ahead of the Copenhagen meeting. It may be a watered down pro-business and farming version of Labour's old plan to penalise polluters, but at least it is a plan.

Mr Key was outspoken at the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago. He took on a greenish tinge, supporting the idea of operationally binding targets to cut greenhouse gases and pledging to pay up to $50 million to help developing countries who would struggle to meet targets.

But in spite of having all his ducks in a row, Mr Key is reluctant to attend the most important meeting on the biggest issue facing the world in recent times.

Presumably his reluctance to attend so far has been based on early intelligence that the summit was headed for disaster. If the political equivalent of the Titanic is about to leave the pier and you're aware there are plenty of icebergs on the loose, you're hardly likely to rush up the gangplank.

But that was before the political wind changed and the likelihood emerged of the summit actually achieving something. United States President Barack Obama is now attending, sparking a rush of interest from other leaders.

The politics of climate change are difficult and there is growing division between those who believe we are in serious trouble and those who believe the whole problem has been cooked up by zealots. In the middle are the scientists trying to sort fact from fiction while vested interests distort their work every which way.

In a way the whole debate is a side issue.The real issue, which not even the most entrenched climate change sceptic can deny, is that in our rush to modernise the world we have turned into terrible polluters and our environment is suffering as a result. The fact that the Manawatu River ranks as one of the world's most polluted attests to our own local failings.

New Zealand should be well represented at a conference bringing together the most important people in the world to discuss a global problem. What engagement could be more pressing than this for our most senior politician? By not going Mr Key would be telling President Obama, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and the leaders of dozens of other important nations that he doesn't regard a meeting with them as important. He needs to get his passport and toothbrush packed.

- © Fairfax NZ News