Jonathan Boston answers: Should New Zealand Fight Climate Change?

Abstract

New Zealand is about to implement the world's first "all sectors all gases" emissions trading scheme yet the country emits only 0.2% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions and not all the impacts of climate change on New Zealand are predicted to be negative. On the other hand New Zealand's export and tourism sectors face threats from growing consumer concerns over "food miles" and "air miles" and international pressure is needed to ensure that major emitters do something before countries vulnerable to climate change further suffer its effects. Is New Zealand's response to climate change warranted inadequate excessive or counter-productive? Jonathan Boston of the Institute of Policy Studies and Richard Meade of the New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation put New Zealand's response to climate change to the test. For a video of Jonathon's views click here.