Clean green debt

Tiny New Zealand generates basically nothing in terms of warmening gases, but look at the protocol payment it faces:

Treasury figures show New Zealand’s Kyoto liability is more than $1 billion …

When the Government signed up to the international agreement it estimated that New Zealand would be in credit by $500 million, but deforestation and an increase in emissions reversed that position earlier.

(Via Andrew Bolt, currently generating monster hits)

1. Pay up New Zealand!  Write the check payable to Vladimir Putin, c/o Russia.  A couple new nuclear subs are waiting for your funding.

   Posted by wronwright on 2008 05 05 at 02:10 PM • permalink

1. After NZ goes bankrupt, will they put it up for foreclosure auction? I’ve always wanted to own my own country.

   I’d have to out-bid Australia, though. They’d like nothing better than to take over and force all the Kiwis to move to Indonesia…

   WITH their sheep.

   Posted by mojo on 2008 05 05 at 02:22 PM • permalink

1. Isn’t that about the GNP of NZ?Â

   If NZ is smart, they’ll realize that they/ve been punked and back out of that abortion of logic called the Kyoto treaty

   Posted by rabidfox on 2008 05 05 at 02:31 PM • permalink

1. Kiwis- start coughing up that money.  You owe it to Mother Gaia!

   Posted by Mystery Meat on 2008 05 05 at 02:34 PM • permalink

1. it must be all the methane in sheep farts

   Posted by quasimodo on 2008 05 05 at 02:57 PM • permalink

1. Which bank does Gaia use? I suspect this is much like the TV evangelist scheme. “Mail your money to God, care of me. Cash or credit only. No personal checks.”

   If I were running NZ, I’d get in line at the LOTR lawsuit trough right behind Peter Jackson. Blame Tolkein first!

   Posted by brett_l on 2008 05 05 at 03:07 PM • permalink

1. I’d advise them to cull their sheep, only I’m not sure what to do then with all the left-over ghost towns.

   For those of you skeptical of the dangers posed by an increase in a trace substance by the order of a couple of hundred parts per million, I give you the next bogey, methane, in parts per billion!

   Posted by Dminor on 2008 05 05 at 03:58 PM • permalink

1. Well, like P.T. Barnum said, there’s one born every minute.

   Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 05 05 at 04:29 PM • permalink

1. Barnum didn’t, David Hannum did. Oddly Barnum generally respected his customers and went to some effort to expose the frauds of his time such as spiritualists.

   Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2008 05 05 at 05:13 PM • permalink

1. What is New Zealand’s yearly budget anyway?

   Posted by tim maguire on 2008 05 05 at 05:18 PM • permalink

1. Don’t laugh too much Aussies.  Your man Rudd signed you up to this farce as well.

   Posted by brian_smaller on 2008 05 05 at 05:20 PM • permalink

1. True enough on the Oz vote, brian.  They the people did choose insanity over successful, sound governance.

   And Dminor…absolutely…. CH4 will be it, with the great advantage of locking in the animal rights and other fringe dwellers. I mean, how many mung beans can be grown in the average cow paddock?  Filet steak byebye.

   Posted by Rod C on 2008 05 05 at 06:14 PM • permalink

1. Is “Kyoto” Japanese for Tony Soprano?

   Posted by Ricardo on 2008 05 05 at 06:55 PM • permalink

1. #11, Brian.
   We all accept that Krudd is as thick as a brick, but did you know how thick? I’ll tell you how thick, the atomic weight of the matter between Krudd’s ears makes Uranium seem positively light and fluffy.

   BTW, anyone. Can you tell me what the mechanism is when all this carbon money is paid? To whom is it paid and what happens to it?
   Also, why is the Kiwi dollar compared with the Euro when it has no visible means of support? It’s play money isn’t it?
   Thanks.

   Posted by Turbine on 2008 05 05 at 07:43 PM • permalink

1. Time for New Zealand to find some balls.

   Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 05 05 at 07:47 PM • permalink

1. $4, A little correction to your post, MM:

   Kiwis- start coughing up that money.  You owe it to Mother Gaia Russia!

   Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2008 05 05 at 07:48 PM • permalink

1. The Kiwis might be given an interesting election choice – vote Labour and be bankrupted by Kyoto or vote Nationals and renounce a UN treaty. They are truly being punished now for being basically green to start with.

   Posted by Contrail on 2008 05 05 at 07:50 PM • permalink

1. I think if we started up some kind of enslavement type deal – say, forcing NZers to pick fruit in Australia during their holidays – they could easily pay off the interest bill each year.

   Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 05 05 at 08:13 PM • permalink

1. #8,9: And Mencken (IIRC) said “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”

   Barnum stuck to practical things, like “This Way to the Egress!”, mostly.

   Posted by mojo on 2008 05 05 at 08:20 PM • permalink

1. Number 17:

   Renounce a UN treaty?

   Yikes!  That’s bound to have serious consequences!

   [stiffled giggling]

   Posted by JJM Ballantyne on 2008 05 05 at 09:08 PM • permalink

1. China is outraged at the deadbeat New Zealanders!

   Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 05 05 at 09:22 PM • permalink

1. From here comes this quote:

   The largest single source of emissions in 2005 was from methane from enteric fermentation of ruminant animals (31.0 per cent of the total emissions).

   Thus in NZ, the greenhouse emissions from farting sheep and cattle are nearly double those coming from all vehicles. In particular, the expansion of the dairy sector is blamed for NZ’s increase.

   I just thought that was unteristing.

   Posted by Margos Maid on 2008 05 05 at 09:40 PM • permalink

1. #14 Turbine

   BTW, anyone. Can you tell me what the mechanism is when all this carbon money is paid? To whom is it paid and what happens to it?

   The whole thing is a crock as we all know.  It’s all detailed here but to summarise:

   If a party (i.e., country like NZ) fails to meet its obligations during the first commitment period (i.e., to control or reduce emissions to a specified level in the years 2008 – 2012) then it will be given an option of making up the shortfall through buying credits through emissions trading.  One obvious beneficiary could be Russia with its store of credits from closing down ageing Russian industry immediately after the end of the cold war (actually I don’t know what ‘credits’ Russia has) but no doubt there are others sitting around ready to sell their credits much of which has been artificially created through accounting exercises.

   The compliance mechanism is voluntary on the part of the reporting party (country) so that it can meet its targets.  Now if the reporting party (country) fails to meet its targets then it will be publicly named!  And it will have to make up the shortfall in the second commitment period as well as an additional penalty of 30%.

   A couple of other points:

   1.  There is no second commitment period and nothing has been agreed at present for the next Kyoto.  I think that was one of the aims of the Bali talkfest, i.e., to start work on it but I think the mob has only agreed to continue talking.  Perhaps that’s so they can travel to exotic places around the world every couple of years.

   2.  A party (country) may exit the Kyoto protocol if it chooses.

   I’ve only touched the surface of the Kyoto scam, but a more accurate summary would be that it is a world command and control system disguised as something to assist the environment.  Any ‘proper’ implementation would require a world government and a policing system to which signatories would be bound.  It also would see a massive redistribution of wealth to third world and former communist countries and all for absolutely no benefit to the planet whatsoever.  No wonder that the UN loves the thing.  Just think of the concentration of power, the ability to crush the decadent west and all the jobs for their cronies. How about the power and glory from a job in the Kyoto World Police Force, or the Kyoto World Court and so on!  The whole thing is mad, but potentially quite dangerous to the extent that it is taken seriously.

   The best course for NZ and any other country that racks up a Kyoto deficit would be to abandon the treaty but I wonder if they will have the courage.

   Posted by Wand on 2008 05 05 at 11:07 PM • permalink

1. So, where’s all the swampies saying that the debt should be forgiven?

   Make International Debt History!

   That should lift Un Zud out of poverty.

   Posted by kae on 2008 05 05 at 11:07 PM • permalink

1. I’m really curious about how NZ will handle this, particlarily in light of colding trend!

   Posted by rabidfox on 2008 05 05 at 11:49 PM • permalink

1. For too long New Zealand has been riding on the sheep’s back. It’s time for the sheep to have a turn.

   Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2008 05 06 at 12:28 AM • permalink

1. Democracy in action – NZ got the Gummint they deserved?

   IIRC in the mid-80s Social Security was 50% of the NZ labor Govt budget (Oz got to 33% under Labor).

   NZ probably couldn’t meet their ANZUS budget under now-dead Phat-arse David Lange …

   Posted by egg_ on 2008 05 06 at 02:44 AM • permalink

1. #14,
   Apologies to our KIWI friends, having reread the bit about having no visible means of support, I meant the Euro. Sorry.

   Posted by Turbine on 2008 05 06 at 03:03 AM • permalink

1. #23,
   Thankyou Wand, that explains it in a nutshell.
   I remember back in the late seventies about the “New World Order”, it was to be based in Brussels. Had something to do with the club of Rome or the Fabians, I forget now, but it sparked some heated discussions for a time.
   Thanks again Wand.

   Posted by Turbine on 2008 05 06 at 03:11 AM • permalink

1. #20 JJM Ballantyne

   Agree with your snicker. But until now no western democracy was been willing to do so.

   But global warming will be the issue that brings that to an end. If it comes down to Kyoto or power, western political parties will opt for power. Look out for a growing move to discredit global warming (a lie anyway) as parties attempt to capitalise on growing public anger at the cost of Kyoto compliance. Like those global warming alarmists, I’m prepared to set a date when this will happen – 2012.

   Posted by Contrail on 2008 05 06 at 04:59 AM • permalink

1. Perhaps the Kiwis need to again unleash theseon an unsuspecting world

   Posted by Pickles on 2008 05 06 at 08:27 PM • permalink