Emissions target unambitious - Greens

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman. Photo / NZPA

A pledge to halve New Zealand's greenhouse gases emissions is "unambitious" and shows the Government is not serious about addressing climate change, the Green Party says.

Climate Change Minister Nick Smith announced the goal today, saying public consultation supported setting a long-term emissions reduction target.

"We believe a 50 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2050...strikes the right balance," he told a New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute Forum in Wellington this morning.

An advisory group on green growth, established in January, would identify additional programmes to help achieve the reductions.

"This target will need to be regularly reviewed to take into account the latest science, development of new technologies, and progress by other countries. New Zealand's contribution to global emissions is very small and our objective should be neither to lead nor lag but do our fair share."

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the goal was unambitious, and that government policies were at odds with any serious attempt to address climate change.

"It is simply green-washing to tell us they have a target to reduce greenhouse emissions in the distant future when their actions in the present increase emissions."

Dr Norman criticised the Government's changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme, its energy strategy focus on mining and drilling, the building of billion-dollar motorways, and its irrigation schemes subsidies enabling greater expansion in intensive industrial dairy.

"I say judge a man by what he does, not what he says," Dr Norman said.

"If they were serious about a target they would set milestones that they could be held accountable for, not a target that is 13 electoral cycles away."

- NZPA