State of the Environment, state of the country

Radio New Zealand reports:



The Government is stopping the five-yearly State of the Environment report.

Put together by the Ministry of the Environment, the report is the largest stock-take of trends relating to land, water, air, plants and animals.

The next report was expected in December, but the Government has decided instead to look at the basic data for each area.

Environment Minister Amy Adams said the ministry is continually tracing environmental performance using 22 core indicators and the change is to ensure new information is released as it comes to hand.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright said that is not good enough, because the data is not compiled, analysed, or compared.

Dr Wright also said she was unaware the report was being scrapped.

Green MP Eugenie Sage said the Government is just trying to keep New Zealanders in the dark about environmental problems.

This seems a cynical and disgraceful action by a Government widely considered both anti-environment and anti-transparency. 

Who, I wonder, would defend this latest action?

Jan's in Southland - all's Wright with the world

This morning I met the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright and had a wee chat with her, before she began her adress to the combined councils of Southland. I have long admired her work, especially her findings and conclusions around lignite mining. Today, my admiration for her grew, both from what I heard from her in our little tete a tete, and from the presentation she gave to the assembled be-suited councillors.
Her message on lignite? It's the very worst of the fuels and presents too many problems with it's production. Jan was very clear that she doesn't find credible, Solid Energy's (Don Elder's) assurances that they will sequester the CO2 produced beneath Southland's green pastures, or under the seabed of the Great South basin, or that they will off-set the huge volumes of gas produced, by planting trees. She managed the climate-denier from the Gore council, he's the Deputy Chair I believe, well, by presenting the reasons for her firm belief that climate change is real, and comforted him by saying, 'I commend you for taking an interest', but that's as much as she was prepared to concede. Southland's Mayor Frana Cardno spoke powerfully about her concerns around lignite, saying that buried lignite was, 'money in the bank' and that that is where it should stay for the meantime. Jan described the extraction and use of lignite as a fuel as, 'truly unsustainable', and gave it no quarter. Those in attendance must have been struck by her clarity of purpose and depth of knowledge of the lignite issue.
I've not had a chance to hear what their reactions are but will be asking around for their opinions later.
She, incidentally, described the situation with the Waituna Lagoon, as 'truly alarming'.

Don Elder on Jan Wright on lignite or wood

Dr Elder says 'lignite'.
Dr Wright says 'wood'.

Elder:

“We will take full responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions in developing our Southland lignite projects."

Government-owned coal miner Solid Energy came out with a sharp comment on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Environment over a view on biofuels. Solid Energy said the Parliamentary Commissioner for Environment, Dr Jan Wright, was misinforming the important national discussion on the country’s transport future.
By *focusing solely on environmental issues*, Dr Jan Wright concludes that the future does not lie in lignite-derived fuels.
This, said Solid Energy chief executive Dr Don Elder, ignores the real question: “How do we provide New Zealanders with transport fuel security and affordability while addressing environmental sustainability?”
Dr Elder acknowledged Dr Wright’s contribution to the debate around New Zealand’s emerging biofuels industry but said her focus was* too narrow *and risks cutting off valuable options.
“Solid Energy believes the Southland lignite resource is capable of producing a secure, affordable supply of transport fuel and we are committed to addressing environmental impacts.

Wright:

The country's environmental watchdog is taking aim at a state-owned coalminer's plans to turn lignite into diesel.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright said the Government should only support Solid Energy's plans for a large-scale synthetic-fuel facility in Mataura, Southland, after *considering if wood
could be used instead*.
"Solid Energy is a state-owned enterprise and when it invests in infrastructure it pays a lower dividend, thus reducing Government revenue,"
Wright said in a report released yesterday.
"The *responsible ministers* should take a strong interest in any *major long-term investment by Solid Energy*, especially one with the potential to  *increase national greenhouse gas emissions.*"