Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) Link to this
I rise to speak on the climate change estimates. I will make a few points in this short contribution. The first is that, when it comes to climate change, we have a moral obligation to take action. We have a moral obligation not only to ourselves and to future generations of New Zealanders, but also to people who live in the Pacific. Just in the last few days, the Alliance of Small Island States—some of our key neighbours—called on developed countries like New Zealand to commit to an emissions reduction target of at least 40 percent by 2020. They have called on New Zealand to make a strong reduction target because their very homes may go under. We have a moral obligation to act on climate change. It has been one of the Green Party’s great frustrations that, over the years, there has been very little action in terms of actually reducing our gross emissions. It is probably true that our net emissions will come pretty close to zero by 2012, but our gross emissions will be way over.