Press Release: New Conservative
Leighton Baker, Leader New Conservative
The Green MP’s call for ACC to divest of its $1Bn investment in fossil fuels overlooks a few basic truths clearly understood by New Conservative and the average New Zealander.
No 1 is that 80% of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels. It is an economically sound investment, and, seeing as ACC is charged with investing our money wisely, it is a logical choice. (Incidentally, a further 10% comes from biofuels which are blamed for massive deforestation across the globe, and 5% from Nuclear. How palatable is that ?)
No 2 is that every tourist that comes to New Zealand does so burning fossil fuels, so banning investment in them, while being reliant on them, is an ideological stance rather than a logical or wise one.
“If Ms Genter wants to take that religious stance with her own money and personal finances – fine, but, as a Minister of the Crown, she is charged with looking after New Zealand’s interests, and we are dependent on fossil fuels and will be for a long time yet,” says Leighton Baker, New Conservative Leader.
China is looking at building two large coal-fired power plants each month for the next 12 years according to Greenpeace. Ms Genter is naïve if she believes that New Zealand’s stand on carbon will make one scrap of difference to the world’s ecology.
For New Zealand to have any noticeable effect on the environment, we should be investing in pollution solutions, not jeopardising industry and investments through carbon virtue signalling. Utilising New Zealand’s creativity and problem-solving capabilities means that we would be able to export solutions to the world’s pollution woes, rather than aimlessly spending billions of dollars on a substance we produce little of, without being able to quantify any benefit from the billions spent.
“We call on this government to concentrate on its mandate to look after New Zealand’s interests and not throw us under the carbon bus,” concludes Baker.