The Copenhagen Climate Summit will be one of the significant political events of 2009. Its purpose is to come to a conclusion regarding the current Kyoto Protocol, or to develop a new climate change treaty. New Zealand has a crucial role to play in terms of both ethics ad economics. New Zealand over the past has built up an image of ‘international good citizenship’[1] which contributes indubitably to its economic growth through tourism. If it does not respect its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, in the short term the negative impacts on the economy will be severe. New Zealand is unique in its carbon emissions because half of them come from agriculture. Currently, the government has not found a solution, or at least it is not pro-active enough at mitigating the greenhouse emissions in this sector. The only policy so far is to integrate agriculture into the New Zealand’s Emission Trading Scheme, however it does not explain how this will be done, or the particular problems caused by agriculture itself. Compared to the industrial sector, it is barely impossible to measure carbon emissions from farming levels, or to equally distribute carbon credit due to the number and diversity of farms. In spite of these problems, no alternative options have been looked at, such as ‘organic agriculture,’ which could be a huge opportunity for New Zealand thanks to the boom of consumer demand in Europe and America.
[1] Jonathan Boston. Toward a new global climate treaty: looking beyond 2012 (Wellington N.Z.: Institute of Policy Studies, 2007), 302.