Climate change election debate

It's the start of the election campaign. Last night I went to a climate change election debate hosted by Oxfam.

I was fascinated that while political parties thought it was worth sending the cabinet minister for climate change (Nick Smith), the leader of one of the political parties (Russel Normal of the Greens)and the opposition spokesperson for climate change (Labour's Charles Chauvel) to take part, and Adrian Macey, chair of the UN climate change talks also attended, there were only about 150 people in the audience, many of whom were the usual suspects.

Both climate change and the ETS/global political environment favouring mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions seem like they have the potential to change our lives more significantly than most other issues that might be debated in this election so you'd think people might be more interested.

Points I was interested in from the debate:

Both Labour and National were pessimistic about a replacement to the Kyoto agreement being agreed before the current commitment period runs out in 2012. Therefore NZ may have no ongoing financial commitments.

The Maori Party's stance tries to balance protecting low-income earners from rising costs with taking a kaitiaki role. It appears to focus on tweaking climate policy to help benefit Maori, such as subsiding reafforestation for carbon sinks on the East Cape.

The Greens originally favoured a carbon tax and redistribution of revenue. Their current climate change policy/emissions reduction plan includes purchasing international offsets.

Labour's line is that the lignite in Southland would stay in the ground. No state company would mine for it and any new company would pay the full costs of emissions. But deep sea drilling would be allowed with appropriate safeguards.

National tosses up between various possible uses for the Southland lignite (urea, briquettes or diesel production).

Nick Smith talked about "good" fracking and "bad" fracking - "bad" shallow fracking that shouldn't be allowed and "good" fracking that relates to geothermal exploration.

Nick Smith, as ever, was the consummate politician. However, when he tried to claim credit for National for implementing the ETS it did draw a laugh from the crowd.

British supermarkets

INSANE.

That is the only word for British supermarkets.

From a distance I had been really envious of how "green" supermarkets in the UK seemed - creating demand for Marine Stewardship Council certified fish, giving information on food miles, stocking organic food ...

Then this is what I found when I got up close:



Yes, that is four apples on a black plastic tray sealed in a plastic bag WITH A LABEL proudly claiming that this is LESS PACKAGING.

That's just bonkers.

And did you notice the little label at the bottom left? South African apples.

I bought picnic lunches at the supermarket a few times and tried really hard to find fruit that was grown in the UK. There was stuff from Spain, Italy and France but the only thing I could find from Britain was strawberries in plastic punnets.

OK, I figured, it's June, it's still only late spring, not really a good season for fruit. Maybe I'll get some vegies instead. I turned to the vegie aisle. There was an amazing variety of vegetables on display. Salad greens, lettuces, cucumbers, I think there were tomatoes. There were little plastic packets of green beans from Africa that must surely have been air-freighted. But the only vegetables from Britain were peas.

And everyone else was shopping like this was COMPLETELY NORMAL.

I was gobsmacked.

All those things that I had admired - the recyclable packaging, the Forest Stewardship Council certified cardboard, the country-of-origin labelling - now I just see it as a big greenwash.

Organic Paris

I was so impressed with how environmentally conscious Parisians are.

I was impressed when I met a Parisian man on the train from the Spanish border (yes, his name was Jacques) and part way along the conversation turned to how concerning climate change is. He was the one who brought it up, I swear.



Then I came upon this beautiful organic market (Marche des Batignolles, a Saturday market set up down the middle of the street in Montmartre). Just look at those artichokes!

There was such an amazing variety of organic products there - vegetables, fruit, bread, preserves, cotton items, cheeses ...



Imagine being able to find that variety of organic cheeses in Wellington! It was organic heaven.

Then up a side street I found an organic shop where I bought this:



This is certified organic made-from-eggs-and-cream custard (and I have to tell you, The Most Delicious custard I have ever eaten). And look, it came in a glass jar! Not a plastic pottle, a glass jar. Remember back when dairy products came in glass?

I checked in the shop but it wasn't refillable, however that day happened to be glass recycling collection day in Montmartre, so I snuck it into a collection bin.

To some extent all this is a reflection of a larger market and French (and especially Parisian) wealth, so people can afford to spend more on organic food etc., but it's still encouraging to see that level of environmental awareness.