Kyoto protocol

I think it is very unfortunate, I think the issues are very complicated around Kyoto, I think Australia’s stance is an interesting one, because obviously they are saying Kyoto in some ways isn’t tough enough, it needs to be tighter on these emerging nations like China and India. They are saying why should we pay the burden? Now unfortunately it’s up to some countries to lead the way and get others to sign up, and the very idea of not signing up even if the reasons are completely logical, and Kyoto is full of holes, and it’s by no means perfect, it means other people can duck out of it.

And I think the worst case is unfortunately with America, where America is making all these sub….you know little exemptions and details, they have made it really problematic because it means people look at them and say, well if America aren’t doing it then why should the rest of us? America is the single greatest contributor to global warming. And it’s curious, because America is, as with many things in America, it’s a very mixed up country, they’ve got a terrifically good record on things like water purification, on cleaning up rivers, on environmental spills like that, but they’ve got a very bad record in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and pollution.

So if you actually look at a league table of polluting nations, America is probably only rated about as well as Britain, I think we turn up in about 40th in the top 100, which is still not a very respectable position. New Zealand you would be delighted to know is considerably higher. But the reason they are there is because they’ve got this good record on water. If you just look at the record in terms of environmental pollution, in terms of atmospheric gases, America is doing appallingly badly, and I think their attitude towards Kyoto is grossly irresponsible, and I’m afraid to say I think the attitude of other world leaders in not putting pressure upon the Americans is irresponsible as well.

There is, unfortunately as I am sure you are aware, there is always this trade off between short term and long term. You know if you go up to somebody and say in five years time your car tyre is going to need to be replaced, and if you don’t do it you are going to have a fatal accident, well they are going to go, “Hey, I’ve got to worry about filling the car with petrol today, I’ve got to worry about this, I’ve got to worry about that.” It’s very hard to get people to think about things that are a long way into the future. As far as George W. Bush is concerned, he will be long out of office by the time all of these things begin to kick in. The same with the Chief Executive Officers, the CEOs of most major companies. It’s only natural that they are thinking about short term gain.

So it needs something on a very big scale, and that very big scale is governments, to force them to take these issues seriously. Unfortunately in my opinion what tends to happen is the other way round, is that the very powerful companies tend to persuade the politicians to look the other way. Now what can stop the politicians looking the other way? Hey, it comes back to us again. It’s up to us to make sure that rather than listening to short term vested interest companies, that the politicians listen to the people who voted them in, they listen to us and we go, “We are not going to vote for you unless you sign up, we are not going to vote for you unless you take this seriously.”

I wonder how many people in New Zealand and certainly in the UK have ever asked their local MP what their stance is on these things. Have they actually asked them what their commitment is to Kyoto? We have groups in Britain who have made out forms that you can sign up to lobby your local MPs to get them involved in these things.

Like most people everyone is busy, everyone’s got a lot of things on their mind, it’s really easy to start thinking about the next exam result, the next football game, and the thing that is just around the corner, the pair of trousers that need replacing and not think, hang on all of this is going to be for nothing if we don’t start thinking a bit further ahead, and that is the way we need to get Australia and America on line.