Today, Wellington is hosting World Environment Day, which occasion it is marking with a public debate (yesterday), a free concert (tomorrow), a family day (day after tomorrow)… er, there isn’t really anything on today at all, is there?
The exception being the panel discussion, “How can we decarbonize the planet”, with a pretty impressive panel – climate change Minister David Parker, head of the UN Environmental Programme Achim Steiner, President of Kiribati Anote Tong and head of the IPCC Dr Rajendra Pachauri.
As a dscussion it never really got going. Each person made personal remarks, and after that and a late start there wasn’t much time for questions at the end, and the questions were all rubbish anyway (par for the course at every single public event I’ve ever been to, the questions are *always* rubbish).
The speakers made much of the value of putting price signals into the economic system to encourage responsible behaviour. Pachauri made the (to me) astonishing claim that acting to mitigate CO2 emissions might well incur a negative cost (i.e. make money! All speakers indicated that NZ was not without influence on the global stage, claiming that advancements in carbon emission reduction here would be watched very closely all around the world. Both Parker and Pachauri outright said that New Zealand could inspire other countries into action.
It was a good session, if not particularly stunning and not as enlightening as I’d hoped for. Nice to see the lecture theatre packed to the gills for it, too.
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“Pachauri made the (to me) astonishing claim that acting to mitigate CO2 emissions might well incur a negative cost (i.e. make money!”
I don’t see that as particularly surprising. Most of the great technological advancements come not from an environment of sufficiency but an environment of need. All the things people are trying, like more efficient cars and alternative fuel sources, are ultimately going to drive innovation and clever, probably money-making, tricks.