Critics demand climate plan as New Zealand welcomes Paris Agreement

The New Zealand government Friday welcomed the historic Paris Agreement coming into force as environment campaigners lambasted the country's lack of a plan of to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

The Paris Agreement formalizes the legal framework for all countries to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

New Zealand ratified on Oct. 5, helping the agreement cross the threshold for entry of 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions.

"This is the first time all nations have agreed to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a common legal footing," Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett said in a statement.

"The speed at which the Paris Agreement has come into force is unprecedented and underlines the urgency needed to make significant and sustainable changes to reduce emissions. New Zealand's ratification guarantees we can participate in any decision-making under the Paris Agreement at the COP 22 meeting, to be held in Morocco this month."

COP 22 (the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) would be the first major UN climate meeting since Paris in December last year, when countries adopted the first ever universal global climate deal.

Bennett said she would travel to the meeting in Marrakech, on Nov. 14 to deliver New Zealand's national statement to the COP and the CMA, the governing body of the Paris Agreement, which will meet for the first time on Nov. 15.

Bennett would chair New Zealand-led events to push for the removal of fossil fuel subsidies and support development of international carbon markets.

The opposition Green Party said the government needed "real evidence" of a plan to reduce New Zealand's emissions, which were up 19 percent since 2008.

"Tackling climate change represents a huge opportunity for New Zealand. It's a chance to invest in electric public transport, build healthier, and more energy-efficient homes, and shift to more sustainable forms of agriculture," Green Party co-leader James Shaw said in a statement.

The international campaign group, Greenpeace, called for a summer of action to highlight the government's plan on climate change.

The government had committed to reducing emissions to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Kate Simcock said in a statement.

But the country was forecast to meet 80 percent of the target by offsetting emissions in the international carbon market.

"If every country behaved the way we did, we'd literally be dead in the water. It's not acceptable that we push the burden onto someone else so that we can keep polluting, it's utterly immoral as a global citizen," said Simcock. Endit