New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 67

March 15, 2019. A lone gunman attacked
two mosques in Christchurch during Friday
prayers in a massacre in which 51 people
were killed and 49 others injured. In the
aftermath, the Muslim community was a
source of inspiration in its refusal to let the
atrocity create division and Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern won plaudits for her compas-
sion and calm resolve. The live-streaming
and subsequent copying of the perpetrator’s
video added further revulsion to an already
unspeakable crime, leading to the Christchurch Call summit
in Paris. The Government moved to ban semi-automatic
weapons and assault rifles, and in mid-July the first of numer-
ous gun buy-back events around the country took place in
Christchurch. The accused gunman is now facing murder and
terrorism charges.

Last year, research published by Waste Manage-

ment World showed that we produce 3.68kg of

waste per head per day, the most in the devel-

oped world, putting the lie to the “clean, green”

image we sell overseas. The recent single-use

plastic shopping bag ban

is a small step in the right

direction, but our historic

complacency in recycling

and rubbish disposal, as

highlighted by the Fox

River landfill spill this

March, demonstrate

that much more effort is

needed.

Climate change

Sustainability

Christchurch mosque shootings

Glaciers have moved faster than
politicians to address New Zealand’s
contribution to climate change, but
Parliament is now finally legislating to
cap, reduce and sequester
the greenhouse gases
that are heating the
planet.
The Zero Carbon Bill is
generally seen as imper-
fect – the hard-won set
of compromises among
the three governing
parties – but it sets the
country on course to be
carbon-neutral by 2050.
An independent Climate Change
Commission will set science-based
reduction targets over the various
sectors.
A further breakthrough came in
July when farm leaders agreed their
sector would transition into the Emis-
sions Trading Scheme once reliable
emissions-measuring systems were in
place. New Zealand is an unusual emit-
ter in that methane from agriculture

• animals belching – makes up a third
  of its emissions, so that unlike in other
  countries the reduction burden is fall-
  ing heavily on farmers. Dairy farmers
  in particular are under pressure to
  reduce herd sizes – an economically
  unpalatable option.
  A cross-party consensus is emerging
  in favour of reviewing the tight restric-
  tions on use of gene technology here,

as new grasses and breeding pro-

grammes show promise in reducing

livestock emissions.

The zero-carbon strategy also

depends heavily on trees

to absorb carbon, with

wealthy foreign investors

already buying land to

participate in the lucrative

carbon forestry sequestra-

tion market. A future reliant

on forest sinks is seen as

controversial, however,

because it’s displacing

productive farm land, as

investors can outbid locals,

and because most of the plantations

won’t be permanent, native or regen-

erating forest, but short-lived exotics

such as radiata pines. Critics worry

there are too few levers to ensure the

carbon-farmed forests are maintained

and/or replanted once their owners

have claimed the carbon credits.

Also glacial, despite a pending

Government tax-break boost, is

progress towards electric and hybrid

vehicles. New Zealand is among the

world’s highest per capita car-owning

countries, accounting for most of our

households’ contribution of 11% of all

greenhouse gases (as at 2017). Though

these emissions are falling, electric

vehicles are still scarce and pricy – this

being a small, remote market – and

industry analysts say it will be several

years before that changes.

Listener covers on sustainability

CH

RIS

(^) SL
AN
E