Climate change in 'ordinary' Kiwis' hands

5.30pm


Environmental officials preparing New Zealand to cope with effects of global warming and climate change, such as more extreme floods and droughts, say they want to persuade "ordinary" Kiwis the problem is a grassroots issue.

The Environment Ministry today launched a nationwide campaign aimed at raising awareness that all New Zealanders have a role to play in reducing the impact of climate change.

"We have taken the lead from the used car world, with 'one careful owner'," said Environment Ministry chief executive Barry Carbon.

"If every one of New Zealand's four million careful owners did their bit, our kids will be better off," he said.

The campaign, partly based on newspaper advertisements, was being launched when a lot of New Zealanders were on holiday and thinking about things such as temperature, rainfall, and other aspects of the environment, Mr Carbon said.

"The campaign is designed to make it okay for Kiwis to protect our natural environment from the effects of climate change," he said.

Gentle persuasion was likely to be more effective than setting rules on climate change, or issuing doom-laden "fry and die" predictions about global warming, Mr Carbon said.

The cabinet convener on climate change, Pete Hodgson, said a year ago that from 2007 or 2008 there is likely to be a "carbon tax" of $25/tonne for greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as fossil fuels, including coal, gas, petrol and oil used for transport and electricity generation.

The public awareness campaign will feature New Zealanders already implementing initiatives and programmes to reduce their contributions to climate change in both their personal lives and businesses.

"The Earth is getting warmer, due largely to greenhouse gas emissions from human activity," he said. "It is important that New Zealand also does its bit."

Steps carried out by individual homeowners could be as simple as planting a tree, composting organic waste, using cars better and practising energy efficiency in homes and businesses.

About 40 per cent of New Zealand's total landfill waste was organic material which, when buried, produced around 100,000 tonnes a year of the climate-changing gas methane.

Simply separating waste, and composting at home could save the release of huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere, save households the cost of some rubbish bags and nourish the soil in the back garden.

Properly maintaining a car could equate to fuel savings of up to 20 per cent, Mr Carbon said.

"Energy savings can also be made by turning off lights and appliances on standby when you leave the room -- saving 5 per cent of your power bill is as easy as getting into the habit of turning appliances such as the microwave, washing machine, dryer, TV and video off at the wall," he said.

The public awareness campaign is expected to increase participation in new "local" voluntary schemes to slash the greenhouse gas emissions from households and communities.

New Zealand recently signed an agreement to work more closely with Australia on climate change measures.

Local councils are planned to participate in a programme similar to Australia's "Cool Communities" scheme, run by individual councils.

Early in the new year, the Government will establish a New Zealand "communities for climate protection" programme in partnership with local councils, to build on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority's similar partnership with councils promoting energy efficiency.

The climate programme will help councils develop "emissions inventories", targets for emission cuts, and ways to make the cuts and monitor progress.

* New Zealand's total greenhouse gas emissions have increased around 17 per cent since 1990 -- the benchmark year for the Kyoto Protocol.

* Environment Ministry projections show New Zealand could be 24 per cent above the target set in the Kyoto Protocol for the first "commitment period" 2008-2012 if nothing is done to cut the nation's emissions.

* The three main greenhouse gases and their sources are: carbon dioxide (energy generation, industry, transport); methane (farm livestock and landfills); and nitrous oxide (soils, agricultural fertilisers).

* New Zealand's greenhouse gases mainly come from: agriculture (51 per cent) energy, mostly energy generation, (39 per cent), industrial processes (5 per cent) and waste (5 per cent).

* Most of the growth in New Zealand gas emissions since 1990 has been increased carbon dioxide, mainly from transport and electricity generation in the energy sector, which has CO2 emissions 30 per cent higher than in 1990.

* New Zealand's forests will absorb around 100 million tonnes of CO2 between 2008-2012.

* Earth's temperature is predicted to rise by between 1.4degC and 5.8degC over the next 100 years -- faster than at any time over the past 10,000 years.

* Rainfall patterns are likely to become more sporadic.

* Sea levels will rise between 9cm and 88cm by 2100, and may threaten low-lying countries such as some Pacific Islands. Sea levels will continue to rise for centuries after greenhouse gas concentrations have stabilised.

* The impact of global warming may be particularly harmful for countries like New Zealand that are 'climate dependent'.

* Possible environmental impacts include drier conditions in the east, wetter conditions and flooding in the west, pressure on some native ecosystems, biosecurity risks, possible water shortages, rising sea levels in some places and more sub tropical pest and disease problems.

* Economic impacts may include some crops disappearing, other threats include the introduction of new pests and diseases -- mosquitoes, dengue fever -- and dealing with the effects of climate extremes (drought, flooding and erosion).

* Changes in temperature may threaten native plants and animals.

- NZPA