O'Rourke Denis: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5369. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): I want to speak on the Environment sector in the Committee stage of the Appropriation (2015/16 Estimates) Bill and specifically on climate change policy ready for Paris 2015. This Government has a half-hearted approach to climate change policy and I think it has actually lost sight of the real objective. The need to greatly reduce the planet’s greenhouse gases arising from human activity is the most serious issue of the age. The effects of climate change will be as serious for New Zealand as for the rest of the world and maybe they will be even more serious given New Zealand’s reliance on agriculture. New Zealand in fact is in a better position than most other nations to make a positive and exemplar commitment to its targets and contrary to Government claims there is no need for any risk to the New Zealand economy by doing so. In fact as President Clinton used to say what is good for the environment is good for business. Indeed there are bound to be significant benefits for the New Zealand economy our physical environment our social systems job growth and of course our international reputation from a genuine commitment to a climate change target. Most of all we could make the greatest contribution possible to future generations of Kiwis by committing to a genuine and significant target for 2030.The Government’s recently announced target of an 11 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2030 has been called feeble unambitious and embarrassing. I would have to agree. I think it is pathetic. We in New Zealand First do not aspire to make New Zealand First a leader in cutting greenhouse gas emissions but we do think there needs to be a genuine target for that and in particular we think we need as a nation to take effective measures to ensure we actually achieve our target. New Zealand so far has failed. Instead of doing more this Government has decided to take longer and to do less. There is far too much reliance on carbon credits from plantation forests established many many years ago. As a result our actual greenhouse gas emissions will be 33 percent higher than in 1990 and we will be worse on a per capita basis than the United States. Our targets are now so low that we may not have to do anything at all to reach them and that applies to both the 2020 and 2030 targets. That is an utterly inadequate response when there is no satisfactory reason for not at least doubling the 2030 target that the Government has announced if not more.The Infometrics study for the Ministry for the Environment has calculated that at worst it would cost New Zealand as little as $500 per household—not per capita but per household—per year until 2020 for an additional and much more ambitious and effective target for New Zealand. In fact a rise to a 40 percent target instead of an 11 percent one is achievable at this reasonable and affordable cost. If you think about the amount of $500 per household per year that is less than $10 per week or to put it another way it is the cost of about two cappuccinos for two people per week. It is a very low cost indeed. That in fact is the real cost of an effective climate change target which is not what we have got under this Government. We can afford it. We can afford a much better and much more ambitious target as part of our national budget. But what we cannot afford are the risks of climate change by doing too little.We in New Zealand need to show the rest of the world that we are going to genuinely play our part not just to make a statement to the rest of the world but for our own New Zealand benefit especially for those of future generations. For those reasons I believe that we must upgrade our target for Paris in December—not just to make such a statement but to achieve a better economy a better social system and a better environment for New Zealand. I want to take this opportunity to call on the Government to revise the target it has announced and to adopt a much more ambitious one.