April 1, 2006 11:23am by David Farrar

Blog round-up

No Right Turn has blogged several reports from the climate change conference. I found Simon Upton’s comments very good.

Generation XY has the top ten ways Bill Ralston is dumbing down the news:

4. By darkening Susan Wood

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Idiot/Savant

“I found Simon Upton’s comments very good.”

So, does this mean you agree with his conclusion that we need to put a price on carbon ASAP, and that National needs to come to the party and agree to a cross-party accord to provide policy stability?

Just poking…

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April 1, 2006 3:38pm

JohnD

Simon Upton favours carbon tax.
Interesting to see what National policy will be.
May be the fart tax was not such a bad idea afterall.
bring back the fart tax!

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April 1, 2006 4:19pm

Idiot/Savant

National favoured a carbon tax once upon a time as well. Then thry favoured emissions trading, which differs only in its distributional effects, combined with a carbon tax as a preliminary measure. Of course, that was when they were in government rather than opposition.

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April 1, 2006 4:35pm

pamziewamzie

I hope you did agree with Simon Upton David.

Sheesh, that was a bloody good report from No Right Turn.

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April 1, 2006 6:05pm

David Farrar

If our major trading partners sign up to Kyoto, then I have no problems with a carbon tax as a way of helping us meet our commitments.

The devil can be in the detail though such as non-nationalisation of carbon credits, whether other taxes are reduced to compensate for carbon tax etc.

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April 1, 2006 10:03pm

maksimovich

It is intersting that all the media and commentators have missed the importance and tne sinal he communicated on the relavancy of Kyoto and its outcomes.

I will repeat the communique from the G8 Energy ministers meeting in early march.

“We urge science and business to unite their efforts to launch research and development necessary to create new technologies, to improve confidence in them and expand the opportunities for selecting adequate technologies. We call on state officials to take joint efforts to eliminated groundless legal, customs and other barriers that stand in the way of spreading and introducing state-of-the-art, energy efficient and environmentally safe technology and equipment, as well as to help to increase their economic competitiveness.”

The UK media understood this part of Blairs speech this from the times…

The Prime Minister will call today for a new international goal of stabilising temperatures and carbon emissions at present levels when the Kyoto agreement expires in 2012, to be achieved primarily by investment in cleaner energy technologies.

Mr Blair

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April 2, 2006 10:35am

Anon

Regarding TVNZ:

How about the TVNZ theme music being done by Brit DJ Mr. Scruff (entitled Blackpool Roll if you want it)?

TVNZ doesn’t even use NZ music for its long self-advertising-before-programmes (the one with all the options that appear). How does that work in with the charter?

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April 2, 2006 12:38pm

noddy

David, glad to see you giving this conference attention and also the comments regarding Simon Upton. My personal belief is that he was the best minister for the environment NZ has seen (todate). His grasp of the issues and incentives that drive people’s behaviour was excellent, and whilst one could argue with his conclusions at times they were always based on sound and wide analysis and data.

I hope his presence at the conference is an indication that he will be returning to the National (or even Green :-)) fold.

maksimovich – for someone who seems to pay a lot of attention to Tony Blair you really seem to miss his message. Blair wants more than Kyoto will deliver, not less. He hardly thinks it is dead but that as it runs to its end something needs to replace it and that something needs to be supported by the USA, China and India. He thinks that it was a useful agreement when it was first discussed many years ago but that since then scientific knowledge has progressed to a point that global warming is such a certainty that Kyoto does not go nearly far enough in addressing the problem.

It pays to understand this context when making your “Kyoto is dead” comments.

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April 2, 2006 1:47pm

maksimovich

Noddy it is you who does not understand.I blogged on the 13 march what Blair would say ,as he is limited by what the G8 ministers communique.The 6 country agreeement and the Eurasian energy cooperation agreement which are MORE powerful entities then Kyoto set out the vision to 2030 of what will be acceptable and what will not.The ECA agreement goes even further of which NZ is not a memeber or even been granted observer status.

The energy security initiatives for the Eurasian agreement and the 6 country agreement accomplished more in 3 months of negotiations ,then Kyoto could ever achieve in 30 years!.Blair was left out of these agreements and was not even aware of them to the Gleneagles announcements.

The technolgical changes that have been signalled and are the results of the worlds leading engineering/scientific complexs in the Cis ,China,Japan,Korea and India make for some sad comparisions of the remaining EC etc countries .

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April 2, 2006 2:14pm

noddy

maksimovich – really, that is very interesting. Please let us know what emission reductions those policies and agreements are committed to? In just what was was Tony Blair “ingorent” of them? How have I misunderstood what Blairs goals are when they have been so clearly and consistently stated for at least 12 months and were re-iterated on his visit here last week?

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April 2, 2006 2:35pm

maksimovich

Noddy – The Gleneagles agreement set out the wy forward for the next 15 years.The surprise of the 6 country agreement also incorporated the technological best fit solutions for the growth and replacement for the energy complex.

The energy and economic pathways cannot be seperated from the Global equation.Whatis being introduced is the opportunity for the growh of the emerging economies to bypass the initial carbon economy cycle.

The reformation of the worlds energy trading complex and the induction of a third bourse for hydrocarbons and the introduction of a trading bourse for natural gas and derivitives will introduce stablilty and transpearancy pathways for the emerging economies.

The lack of security for energy has meant the development of indigenous sources of mostly coal for the emergent markets.58 countries including Denmark and Germany will complete 340 new coal power stations by 2012.

India is to build 213 China 562.Indeed China completes new plants equivalent to Spains entire electricty complex each year.

The Completion of all these plants and their emissions is equivalent to 5 times the Kyoto Savings targets of which it will not meet.

The US/India/Russian energy cooperation agreement,and the Eurasian energy agreement (Russia CIS,China)and Russia,Korea,Japan,will allow the completion of the east siberian pipelines,the reconfiguration of the coal plants(which was already part of the design)to gas on long term cooperation security agreements,In addition UAS will export an additional 60bgwh of hydro generation to China.

The completion and further construction of 20gwh of N power is also to be completed for China by 2012 by Russia.

These do not include the Russian new electricty intitatives of a further 110 gwh.

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April 2, 2006 5:23pm