16 years of wasted opportunity, time to act on climate change

The report of the Science Group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released last night in Paris, underlines just how much time we have wasted, Green Party Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says.

"The First Assessment report, in 1990, gave a strong indication that human activity was changing the climate in ways that would seriously damage our health, our economy and our natural environment. But because scientists are naturally cautious, and the IPCC has to reach unanimous agreement, that report left room for doubt.

"This doubt was seized on by politicians and representatives of the energy industry to magnify the level of uncertainty, and to demand that nothing be done until we were certain," Ms Fitzsimons says.

"Many scientists and environmentalists urged that we act with caution and reduce our greenhouse emissions with more efficient energy use and more renewable energy sources. Instead, the rate of growth in emissions has continued to accelerate while the political debate got bogged down in whether to believe the science.

"Tonight's report, the fourth, draws on far more observed data, more reliable models, more precise measurements. Its language is more confident: there is "stronger evidence of human influence on climate than was available in the Third Assessment Report" five years ago..

"We have lost 16 years of wasted opportunity and the job of reducing our emissions has got harder, because they have grown so much" Ms Fitzsimon says. .

"I have lost count of the speeches in the house by uninformed politicians claiming the science is still too uncertain and we should do nothing yet. Often they drew on tired old myths about warming being due to increased solar activity or measurement of urban heat islands. Well, this report demolishes both those myths.

"We have lost 12 years since the National Government first investigated carbon charges and emissions trading to try to give an economic incentive to change - and then did nothing. We have lost 7 years since the Labour government came to power and developed a programme including a carbon charge and other mechanisms - and then cancelled them.

"We cannot afford to lose another year. It is time to stop playing party politics and develop a durable programme to reduce New Zealand's emissions rapidly - not some time in the never-never."