From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

The new Conservative New Zealand Coalition Government has cancelled a climate flatulence tax which was due to start in 2025.

New Zealand ends plans to price agricultural emissions

By Lucy Craymer
June 11, 202410:11 AM GMT+10

WELLINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) – New Zealand on Tuesday ended a plan to put a price on agricultural emissions including methane produced by belching sheep and cattle, relenting to farmer pressure that the plan would make their business unprofitable.

The conservative government said in a statement it would establish a Pastoral Sector Group with representatives from the agricultural sector to find other ways to reduce biogenic methane.

…

The previous government had introduced a plan to charge farmers for their gas emissions from the end of 2025, in what was hailed as a world first.

New Zealand, home to 5 million people, has about 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep. Nearly half its total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane.

New Zealand had been planning on including agriculture in the emissions trading scheme as part of its commitment to stop global warming. However, the plan was unpopular in many parts of the rural sector and the current government promised to end it if elected.

…Read more: 

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/new-zealand-ends-plans-price-agricultural-emissions-2024-06-11/

While this is a promising start, New Zealand is not out of the woods when it comes to climate insanity.

In 2023 current New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon said “If you’re a climate change denier at the moment or even a minimalist, I just don’t understand how you can hold that position to be honest.“. Junior coalition partner ACT wants climate action at a slower pace, and New Zealand First, while they place a heavy emphasis on cost of living issues, still have climate action on their list of policies.

Having said that, any relief from the madness of the Jacinda Ardern years is probably a welcome change for ordinary New Zealanders. Whatever doubts I have about the current New Zealand coalition government, former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was far worse. In my opinion, nobody who thinks climate denial is linked to the Christchurch mass shooting should ever again be trusted with any kind of political authority.

---

Update (EW): h/t Duker – Corrected the link to the Ardern thinks Christchurch is linked to climate denial article, the original link was to a related article.

The following is a speech Ardern gave to the United Nations in 2022. This is the basis of my claim Ardern thinks climate denial is linked to the Christchurch mass shooting, she appeared to blame both on a lack of online censorship. If Ardern doesn’t want people to think she believes the issues are linked, she shouldn’t have put both issues in the same speech, and added “climate denial” to the remit of the Christchurch Call to Action.

…

On March 15, 2019, New Zealand experienced a horrific terrorist attack on its Muslim community. 

More than 50 people were killed as they prayed. The attack was live-streamed on a popular social media platform in an effort to gain notoriety, and to spread hate.

At that time, the ability to thwart those goals was limited. And the chances of Government alone being able to resolve this gap was equally challenging. 

That’s why, alongside President Emmanuel Macron, we created the Christchurch Call to Action.

The Call community has worked together to address terrorism and violent extremist content online. As this important work progresses, we have demonstrated the impact we can have by working together collaboratively.

…

As leaders, we are rightly concerned that even those most light-touch approaches to disinformation could be misinterpreted as being hostile to the values of free speech we value so highly.

But while I cannot tell you today what the answer is to this challenge, I can say with complete certainty that we cannot ignore it. To do so poses an equal threat to the norms we all value.

After all, how do you successfully end a war if people are led to believe the reason for its existence is not only legal but noble? How do you tackle climate change if people do not believe it exists? How do you ensure the human rights of others are upheld, when they are subjected to hateful and dangerous rhetoric and ideology?

The weapons may be different but the goals of those who perpetuate them are often the same. To cause chaos and reduce the ability of others to defend themselves. To disband communities. To collapse the collective strength of countries who work together.

But we have an opportunity here to ensure that these particular weapons of war do not become an established part of warfare.

…Read more: 

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/09/full-speech-jacinda-ardern-addresses-un-general-assembly.html