Data rip off New Zealand's green facade

As the world prepares for the Copenhagen climate negotiations next month, it is worth checking out the greenwash that has followed the promises made 12 years ago when the Kyoto Protocol was signed.

Many countries have succeeded in raising their emissions from 1990 levels despite signing up to reduce them. They include countries in the European Union, which agreed to let some nations increase their emissions while others (mainly Britain and Germany) cut theirs.

Then there are the US and Australia, which reneged on the protocol after signing it. And Canada, which never reneged but still has emissions up by a quarter and shows no sign of contrition or of being called to account by the other signatories.

But my prize for the most shameless two fingers to the global community goes to New Zealand, a country that sells itself round the world as "clean and green".

Burning point

New Zealand secured a generous Kyoto target, which required it not to increase emissions between 1990 and 2010. But the latest UN statistics show its emissions of greenhouse gases up by 22 per cent or a whopping 39 per cent if you look at emissions from fuel-burning alone.

Some countries with big emissions growth started from a low figure in 1990. Arguably, they were playing catch-up. There is no such excuse for New Zealand. Its emissions started high and went higher.

Today, they are 60 per cent higher than those of Britain, per head of population. To rub our noses in it, last year New Zealand signed up to the UN's Climate Neutral Network, a list of nations that are "laying out strategies to become carbon neutral". But if you read the small print of what New Zealand has actually promised, it is a measly 50 per cent in emissions by 2050 — something even the US can trump.

Problem of livestock

New Zealand turns out to be mining filthy brown coal to burn in its power stations. It has the world's third highest rate of car ownership. And, with more cows than people, the country's agricultural sector is responsible for approaching half the greenhouse gas emissions.

You might expect the UN Environment Programme to throw New Zealand off its list of countries supposedly pledged to head for climate neutrality. Sadly no. These guardians of the environment say the network "will not be policed ... nor will UNEP verify claims".

It seems to go to great lengths to deny reality. The UNEP website has an excruciating hagiography about a "climate neutral journey to Middle Earth", in which everything gets the greenwash treatment.

Trading strategies

The country trades on its greenness to promote its two big industries: tourism and dairy exports. Groser says his country's access to American markets for its produce is based on its positive environmental image. The government's national marketing strategy is underpinned by a survey that shows tourism would be reduced by 68 per cent if the country lost its prized "clean, green image", and even international purchases of its dairy products could halve. The trouble is, on the climate-change front at least — that green image increasingly defies reality.