Companies get together to voice Kyoto policy concerns

A coalition of New Zealand businesses has come together to form a lobby group against the adoption of Kyoto climate change policies.

The organisations span the electricity, petroleum, gas, forestry, agriculture, cement and transport industries.

"This coalition has formed because of rising concerns about the current direction of Government policy", Pan Industry Group spokesman Chris Baker said in a statement.

Baker says the group's major concerns are "the integrity of the overall process, and the Government's dismissal of the economic risk the Kyoto Protocol represents to New Zealand".

"We are united in our concern. We don't want to see our economy sacrificed and we want to see the process allow sufficient time for the full impacts to be understood.

"Industry accepts there is a global warming problem and that New Zealand should be part of the solution. However it should not be forgotten that our economy's unique characteristics, including a high dependence on energy, means that putting a cost on greenhouse emissions could prove very damaging to the economy and employment.

"None of our main trading partners - Australia, US and Japan - have said they will ratify next year", he said.

Baker claims New Zealand risks damaging the economy by endorsing the Kyoto agreement.

"We want a genuine dialogue with the Government where all the facts are on the table and the costs and benefits can be frankly discussed and assessed in a reasonable timeframe. This has not yet happened and our concerns are that the consultation process is not much more than a box ticking exercise".

nzherald.co.nz/climate

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

United Nations Environment Program

World Meteorological Organisation

Framework Convention on Climate Change

Executive summary: Climate change impacts on NZ

IPCC Summary: Climate Change 2001