Turia Tariana: Climate Change Response Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Turia Tariana: Climate Change Response Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:6128] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
Tena koe. Tenatatou katoa. We are slowly but surely killing Ranginui and Papatuanuku our parents and we must quickly reverse the situation and care for them. The Climate Change Response Amendment Bill provides us with a mechanism by which we can do this. 
The year 2005 has been reported as the first year that ice in the Arctic continued to melt well into the end of September resulting in the biggest annual melt since records began. Aotearoa suffered two major floods in Gisborne in as many months and we have endured major flooding at home in Whanganui and the Rangitikei and in the Bay of Plenty. We have had droughts in Hawke’s Bay Otago Marlborough and Tasman. Human activity resulting in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide methane and nitrous oxide have significantly added to or even produced this effect over the last century. 
And so it is in this context that the Maori Party welcomes the return to this House of the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill. The bill sets up two mechanisms. It allows individuals to trade in emission units and it establishes a mechanism to allow landowners to access the value of carbon in their forests. In essence this means the Crown is able to give tradable emission units in exchange for carbon. The Crown will devolve tradable carbon emission units equal to the carbon contained in permanent forest sinks. 
So what does this mean in practice? Just over a month ago Christchurch City Council approved the sale of carbon credits to British Gas. The sale hit all the papers as it was New Zealand’s first overseas carbon credit sale to a private sector buyer and would generate more than $3 million in revenue for the council over 5 years between 2008 and 2012. 
This is where the Maori Party turns to the genuine progress index for some guidance. The Maori Party has advocated for a genuine progress index as providing a measure of comprehensive sustainable and inclusive advancement. The index distinguishes between positive contributions to progress for example a reduction in greenhouse gas and negative activity such as industrial pollution. The genuine progress index enables nations and communities to look critically and systematically at the massive challenges in front of us with climate change over-population over-consumption wastage peak oil oil depletion and GDP growth. And this is the crunch issue because although it is of course positive that the allocation of carbon credits recognises the progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions the challenge lies in the thinking behind the dealing being done. 
The Maori Party has consistently supported the philosophy behind carbon tax and carbon credits as a key means of providing incentives to industry polluters to control and reduce their emissions. But the value of exchanging carbon credits—trading them off with other countries countries that are polluting the environment—seems to be rather confused logic. Let us trace back the history to this issue. 
In December 2004 the Government awarded the Christchurch City Council 200000 carbon credits or emission reduction units for the capture and transport of methane gas from the closed Burwood Landfill to Queen Elizabeth II Park Stadium Sports Centre and Fun Park to heat and power the sports facility. All praise where praise is due: it is a great initiative that this project will turn waste into a resource through the capture and use of landfill gas that might have otherwise have escaped into the environment contributing to climate change. 
Landfills generate methane one of the worst greenhouse gases as organic matter decomposes. So when methane is burnt it is converted to carbon dioxide which reduces its climate impact by a factor of 20:1. In some pretty impressive number crunching by the council we are told that by capturing the methane gas in this way the carbon emissions avoided by this project equal 10900 cars taken off the road each year. Now 11000 cars cannot be sneered at. We absolutely commend the council on being awarded these credits made through the Projects to Reduce Emissions programme and support it as part of an innovative approach taken at local government level in meeting commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. 
But where we do have some questions is in relation to the ethical issue around the trade off of carbon credits to a private sector buyer. Under the genuine progress index one could not count the fact that credits have been traded for commercial gain as an example of genuine progress. For what changes? The industry—British Gas in this example—is still polluting but now it has credits up its sleeve by a commercial transaction with New Zealand. It does not seem to add up. 
Of course there are many other players that are supportive of schemes created in this bill. We know for instance that NgatiPorouWhanui Forests support the concepts as they and other iwi can make income by trading the carbon credits accumulated in their forest assets. They could also create further employment by planting trees they otherwise would not have planted as it would have been uneconomic to do so. It also means that they can plant trees that previously would not have returned an immediate income stream as quickly as exotic forests. It may mean the return of the slower growing indigenous species and the creation of nurseries specialising in indigenous tree species. They can make money before the harvesting of the forests. It is a totally new income stream. They can also make money by planting permanent and indigenous forests on isolated or erodible land not suitable for farming and harvesting forestry. 
But the Maori Party would ask: is not the whole issue of climate change about reducing greenhouse gas emissions? If industry polluters are able to purchase carbon credits to offset their polluting emissions yet still do not make any efforts to reduce emissions does not the actual problem still remain? 
The question of how New Zealand deals with climate change is an issue of hot debate on which we have many outstanding questions and we look to the Committee stage for their resolution. We know that Maori have repeatedly called for action to preserve the ecosystem and protect land use and we know that the Crown has been challenged to look at the impact of climate change policy on the claim currently before the Waitangi Tribunal—Wai 262. The particular concern put forward was that any policy that promotes land use change must fully understand the impact on indigenous flora and fauna including unintended consequences. We also know that the Waitangi Tribunal has been looking into the issue of carbon credit allocation when Crown-owned forests are growing on Maori land. 
We will be looking to see whether the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill provides for Maori-owned forests and carbon credits and whether it provides responsibly for Crown forests on Maori land. We will want to see during the Committee stage evidence that demonstrates how tangata whenua have been involved. 
Climate change affects us all. It is time to look critically at the way in which we measure the national accounts and look for a more realistic and telling tale of the progress achieved in our nation. Our total wellbeing our health and our sustenance are dependent on the prosperity of the whole national environment—the big picture. Climate change is part of that big picture and carbon credits reward and recognise steps to protect our environment. To this end we support the further development of this bill with a view to genuine progress in Aotearoa.