SOURCE: RADIO NEW ZEALAND
Just days out from the Pacific Islands Forum in the Marshall Islands, New Zealand’s latest commitments on reducing green house gases have been labelled a joke by the hosts.
Climate change is the theme of the summit and the Minister-in-Assistance to the President, Tony de Brum, says New Zealand and Australia must take a more active and meaningful role in leading the Pacific’s battle against climate change.
The New Zealand government recently announced a commitment to cut emissions to five percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020 and Mr de Brum says this is meaningless.
“The New Zealand government had talked about 10 to 20 [percent] in the Copenhagen meetings and we had always thought that that was reasonable. They did say at the time that it was going to be based on other countries making similar commitments, but this thing about five percent is just so, so meaningless.”