Though beset by challenge and turmoil amongst its political allies, New Zealand's centre-left Labour Government has finally passed its ground-breaking emissions trading scheme (ETS) into law - though with a general election only a few weeks away and the right-wing National party odds-on to take power, how long the scheme will remain intact is anyone's guess.
While some 27 other countries, by current count, have enacted some form of ETS already, New Zealand's is arguably the first truly comprehensive scheme, including as it does the vital agricultural sector within its gamut - although the staggered start-up of the scheme does not bring agriculture in until 2013.
Labour, which holds a somewhat tenuous grasp on government under New Zealand's mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system, had to rely on the Green Party and New Zealand First to push the bill through parliament. Which they did, 63-57; but under significant duress.
The Greens, critical of the scheme for not going far and fast enough and not including realistic carbon-reduction targets in the legislation, were upset when Labour delayed (by two years) bringing fuel into the scheme and pushed out the "feather-bedding" of reverse partial-credits for industry as far as 2030. But in the end their support was assured when Labour agreed to put a billion dollars from the scheme toward insulation of every home in New Zealand.
NZ First's support relied on the political survival of their charismatic leader Winston Peters, who has been at the centre of a major scandal around undeclared donations to his party. Peters serves as New Zealand's Foreign Minister, and PM Helen Clark (pictured above) has had to tread a careful course of the not-guilty-until-convicted sort in order not to sack him - and lose his party's votes. That Peters seemed daily about to face the axe made the legislation's passage constantly fraught, but he managed to last until the vote was taken.
While it now appears an ETS will remain in some form regardless of who wins the November election, National's leader John Key has signalled it will be significantly altered if they become the government.
Further Reading:
