The Press: Lack of support puts ETS changes at risk

David Williams of The Press reports on the disagreement over the changes to the proposed ETS between parties.

Currently, the proposed changes are likely to encounter a 6-all stalemate, meaning they will have to be renegotiated.  While many would like for New Zealand to have an agreed ETS in place before Copenhagen next month, others are saying that pushing through an ETS  in the remaining time would not be the prudent choice.

An excerpt: (read in full here)

“Labour, ACT and the Green Party have publicly opposed National’s amendments and, barring a surprise turnaround, the finance and expenditure select committee will be deadlocked at six-all.

“The committee meets this morning and has to report back to the house by Monday.

“Despite the embarrassment of the probable failure, Climate Change Minister Nick Smith said the Government was determined to pass ETS changes into law before negotiations next month in Copenhagen.

“If deadlocked, the bill will be reported back to the House unamended.

“The Government will have to laboriously use supplementary order papers to pass each amendment and, considering the Copenhagen conference starts on December 7, it will almost certainly have to go into urgency.”