Mahuta Nanaia: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Mahuta Nanaia: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:617;Page:13061] 
8.  
NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Tainui) 
 to the  
Convenor Ministerial Group on Climate Change 
: What reports has he received on progress on implementing the Kyoto Protocol? 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Convenor Ministerial Group on Climate Change) 
: 
 I am advised that 122 countries have now ratified the Kyoto Protocol. When Russia confirms its stated intention to ratify the protocol it will come into force. However I have also seen a report of Nick Smith’s announcements that a National Government would renege on New Zealand’s commitment leaving it up to Canberra and Washington to decide what New Zealand should do about climate change. Rather than being “clean green and 100 percent pure” National seems to believe that New Zealand should be unclean ungreen and 100 percent pure poodle. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: A part of that answer was a matter of ministerial responsibility but the other part was not. 
Nanaia Mahuta 
: Can the Minister explain why New Zealand stands by its ratification of the protocol? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: As a newspaper column so eloquently put it “the problem of climate change is enormous. New Zealand can’t ignore the problem. New Zealanders must do their bit.” The writer of that column was Nick Smith. 
Hon David Carter 
: Is the Minister aware of the infrastructure stocktake released today by the Hon Jim Anderton which found “incentives to invest in generation are affected by uncertainty about the carbon tax and whether the Kyoto Protocol will come into force” and is the Minister concerned about the mixed messages coming from the Government? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Yes I am aware of the report; I had a hand in its writing. It seems to me that the member should quote all parts of the report. He may for example like to reflect on the project mechanism by which we use carbon credits that are a direct product of Kyoto to get generation under way such as the 40 megawatts of wind power that I opened in Tararua yesterday. 
Dail Jones 
: Why is this minority Labour Government continuing to spend taxpayers’ money to support the Kyoto Protocol when the refusal of the Russian Federation and the United States of America to ratify it prevents it from attaining any international recognition and also prevents any exchange of carbon credits? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Russia does not refuse to ratify it; it is yet to get around to ratifying it. In respect of the trade in carbon credits the member may be interested to learn that carbon credits are being traded out of New Zealand even now. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: In light of the widespread agreement that climate change is serious and that New Zealand needs to play its part why are decisions about a carbon charge with associated income tax reductions to encourage sustainable energy dependent on decisions by the Kremlin about ratifying Kyoto? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: It seems to me that the member’s question seeks further progress still on climate change issues and so do we. That is why for example yesterday I announced that we will repeat and enlarge the highly successful project mechanism that has so far seen plans for nearly 400 megawatts of new electricity at no cost to the Government. None of that could have happened if we were not a ratifying party. I think Nick Smith should reflect on that. 
Gerrard Eckhoff 
: What is the Minister’s view of the statement by the internationally renowned scientist and director of the Russian Academy of Sciences KirilKondratyev who said the only people who would be hurt by abandoning the Kyoto Protocol would be several thousand people making a living from attending conferences on global warming and how many trips has the Minister attended internationally? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: If the member is expressing his proclivities by quoting a Russian scientist then I invite him to look at the National Academy of Sciences—that is to say the American scientists—which thinks that the international panel on climate change has the issue about right.