New Conservative
Leighton Baker
Leader
New Conservative is concerned the recently endorsed Carbon Zero Bill will have little, if any, measurable benefits to New Zealand, but could seriously impinge on the sustainability of our food and goods production.
New Conservative would remove New Zealand from the Paris Accord, abandon the ETS, and rescind the Carbon Zero Bill for the following reasons.
Firstly, New Zealand farming could already be net carbon zero if all the plants that grow here were included in calculations. Instead, only plantation forests are included, which neglects all the native plants, hedgerows, trees, crops, etc., on farms. In a similar way that businesses could not survive if they had to pay all the GST they collect to the government without any deductions for GST they have paid to suppliers, we cannot make farmers accountable for all the CO2 they produce without deducting all that they sequester.
Secondly, because New Zealand produces food, rather than just clipping the ticket on others’ production, we will naturally produce more carbon. However, nations need our food, so limiting production would be a negative outcome for other nations, and ourselves. Seeing that we produce that food economically and generally pretty sustainably, it makes more than just economic sense for New Zealand to continue to produce the food that feeds more than 8 times our population.
Thirdly, the effects of carbon on the environment is a long way from being proven. Most of the modelled projections on climate change have been so inaccurate that the whole theory must be challenged. We have seen no significant accelerated sea-level rise, and since no one can quantify the percentage of effect that man has on the climate, it would be more responsible to aim funds at mitigating any effects of a changing climate than trying to halt something that nobody knows how to control.
Fourthly, those who are most adamant that we reduce our carbon continue to fly around the world in their private jets and first-class tickets to more talk-fests about it, making it blatantly obvious that they do not really believe the doctrine they are pushing. In the same way that an advocate of veganism would lose all credibility if seen with a medium-rare ribeye, these climate alarmists have lost their mojo.
Fifthly, restricting our economy while other significant carbon emitters ramp up their production means the minute savings we make are quickly swallowed up in a day offshore. Our Government’s role is to protect, enable and encourage New Zealanders, not dance on the world stage. New Zealand is innovative and resourceful and we should be using those qualities to come up with specific pollution solutions that we can export worldwide.
Researching and creating pollution solutions that have worldwide applications would actually provide a greater benefit to the Earth’s environment than the billions thrown at carbon reduction.
New Conservative understands it is much easier to throw rocks than lay bricks, and that is why most of our policies have practical applications developed by people working in the front line of their industries.
To see our policies on things like firearms, binding referenda, family, and justice, or our position on topics like abortion, euthanasia, cannabis and education, visit our website at www.nc.org.nz. The “Search” feature on the Press Release page is a useful tool as well.