2. JOHN KEY (Leader of the Opposition) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does she stand by her statement that New Zealand “could aim to be carbon neutral”, and does she think the draft New Zealand Energy Strategy will help to achieve this aim?
Why does the Energy Strategy that was released yesterday—presumably the document most likely to impact on climate change in New Zealand—mention carbon neutrality only once, and only then in the footnote; and is this the first of many attempts by the Prime Minister to back away from that very unrealistic goal?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
Obviously not, but then I have never been a climate change denier, like the member.
Does the Prime Minister agree with Michael Cullen’s statement in the House last week that “certainly the Government is committed to achieving carbon neutrality”; if so, can she tell the House in what document, and under what time frame, New Zealanders will be able to see that carbon neutrality is achieved by this Government?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
As I told the member in the House last week, it is an aspiration—at least we have them.
Since when has an aspiration become a commitment, outlined by the Deputy Prime Minister in the House last week?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
As the deputy leader quipped, I have the aspirations; he has to fund the commitments.
Jeanette Fitzsimons Link to this
Will the Energy Strategy prevent the building of the three big new fossil-fuelled power stations that are imminent: Contact Energy’s Ōtāhuhu C, Mighty River Power’s Marsden B coal station, and Genesis Energy’s gas station in Rodney, which, together with the almost built Huntly ep3 Power Station, total a 25 percent increase in current generation—all of it fossil—and if it will not prevent them, will not the huge increase in fossil fuel generation leave no room for new renewables and take us even further from the Prime Minister’s goal of carbon neutrality?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I would not have described any of those three that the member mentioned as imminent.
Does it not show that carbon neutrality is just a mirage when the best-case scenario in the Energy Strategy is that by 2030 our carbon dioxide emissions will be back to where they were in 1990, which is net emissions of 26 million tonnes—and that is achieved only after some pretty heroic assumptions; so when is carbon neutrality occurring?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
The Government is very committed to making a difference for climate change, rather than describing it as a hoax as the member did in this House last year.
Has the Prime Minister noticed that yesterday’s energy statement in response to climate change gave no commitments, no clear signals, no timelines, and just a bunch of statements prefaced by the word “could”; or does that explain why under this Government 85 percent of new energy has been generated by coal, and, once again, her record does not stack up to her rhetoric?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
That question simply confirms that the member has not bothered to read the strategy.
Can I confirm for the Prime Minister that I have read the strategy; has she read the conclusion that has three lines and reads like a Confucius poem—and I say to her that if she had not put those three lines in there, the Government would have been forced to write “This page has been left intentionally blank.”?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
All I can say is that the very substantial policy being generated by the Government on climate change issues far outweighs—
Madam SPEAKERRt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
The substantial policy proposals being generated by the Government on this issue far outweigh the two pages the National Party has produced after 7 years in Opposition.