Friday, June 16, 2017



Climate change: Sweden vs New Zealand

If we are to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, the developed world needs to drop its emissions to zero (or thereabouts) by 2050 or so. faced with this challenge, New Zealand is dithering and making excuses. Meanwhile, Sweden is getting on with it:

Sweden has committed to becoming a net-zero carbon emitter by 2045, under a law passed in parliament on Thursday.

Lawmakers voted 254 to 41 in favour of the proposal, which was developed by a committee involving seven out of eight parliamentary parties. Only the far right Swedish Democrats did not engage in the consultation.

The legislation, which takes effect from 1 January 2018, takes a similar form to the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act. It establishes an independent Climate Policy Council and four-yearly cycle for updating the national climate action plan.


New Zealanders like to think our government leads the world on environmental issues. But on climate change, we've long since surrendered that role to others, and now we're just freeloaders. Just like the US. And again, if we want this to change, its pretty obvious what needs to happen: we need to change the government, to one that isn't stuffed full of farmers and climate change deniers.