THE GREAT CARBON TRADING CON

James Shaw: Claims he's 'carbon neutral'.

According to James Shaw we can't just buy our way out of trouble with carbon offsets. But, barely two weeks ago, the Minister for Climate Change was congratulating retailer The Warehouse for doing exactly that. Welcome to the dangerous and deluded world of carbon trading.

IT WAS barely a fortnight ago that James Shaw, the Minister for Climate Change, was talking up retail giant The Warehouse for all the stirling work it was supposedly doing fighting climate change.

He congratulated the retailer for its 'commitment and contribution towards reducing New Zealand's greenhouse emissions.'

"Achievements like this, and the leadership being shown… is vital if we are to become a carbon-neutral economy by 2050." enthused Mr Corporate Green.

But, as this blog and Coal Action Network have noted, all The Warehouse actually did was buy carbon credits in order to achieve carbon neutrality. Its business model remains untouched.

Last week James Shaw found himself the subject of some unwanted media attention when it was reported that his international travel expenses were the highest out of all ministers from October to the end of December, at $77,771. Shaw even outspent the Prime Minister who racked up some $55,000 worth of travel.

Not unreasonably Shaw explained that climate change is a global problem and that means working with people in other countries. However he then went on to say that he was 'carbon neutral' because the Green Party offsets all its travel with a verifiable tree-planting program.

But, interestingly, he went on to say that although he and his other Green MP's were 'carbon neutral' the best thing to do was actually reduce carbon emissions.

"You can't just buy your way out of trouble with offsets," explained Shaw. Yes, this would probably be described as 'greenwashing'.

Which is exactly what The Warehouse have done. Yet Shaw has held up the retailer as a model corporate citizen doing its bit in the fight against climate change.

James Higham : Planting trees is not a solution to carbon emissions.

While we reflect on Shaw's remarkably contradictory views, its worth noting that using tree planting as a carbon offsetting program isn't the solution that  James Shaw and the Green Party claim it is.

According to Professor James Higham from the University of Otago, land-based carbon offsetting, such as planting trees, might help suck in some atmospheric carbon dioxide, but nowhere near as much as flights churn out.

"If you plant a tree, or plant a million trees, that doesn't really solve the problem because the carbon has been emitted and it's in the atmosphere," Professor Higham told ABC News last year.

"The trees may absorb some of the carbon dioxide, but then you have to maintain those trees. If they die, the carbon is released again and you're back to square one."

While James Shaw and the Green Party might have put their faith in carbon offsetting it is, as one commentator has noted, little more than 'state of the art greenwashing'. Offsets simply provide a justification to maintain our carbon-intensive lifestyles, and criminally delay the profound changes we need to make in our societies. When the call is for 'system change not climate change' carbon offsetting promotes the dangerous fantasy of a environmentally friendly capitalism. With the planet lurching to environmental disaster we cannot afford the kind of delusions that James Shaw and the Green Party are promoting.