New Zealand Celsias

As China produced in March 2011 a five year plan that is arguably one of the most serious environmental plans on the planet for environmental remediation and with a massive move to clean technologies and to clean up their environment the year started with some real action on climate change . As they recognised that there are values that are just as important as growth, we held our breath for some serious improvement. China invests in clean technologies in ways that would make our mouths water.China sees it. Surely we would get it here ?

Then Chris Huhne in the UK in May this year proved that the Conservative Governments actually takes very seriously its obligation to cut carbon emissions by announcing that the long term aim of the Government was to cut carbon emissions by 2050 by 80%. Yes, that’s right 80%. We thought if Britain gets it, it’s likely to be contagious.

And as Angela Merkel in the wake of Fukushima announced massive increase in renewable targets and a complete phasing out of nuclear power by 2022, we knew the major economies were serious.
And Italy in June voted so overwhelmingly against nuclear and against water privatisation.
And Obama announced this month some extraordinary aid to get the US armyinto renewable fuels. Well, that’s a motivator in the US. The military is massive so a target in the army of 25% renewables by 2025 is a serious step.
And even Australia, against almost overwhelming opposition from the mining industry , inches towards a tax on carbon.

The year looked hopeful .

So we thought the New Zealand Government may get caught up in that genuine desire to make a difference to the world we live in. the only one we have.We thought maybe the increasing frequency of extreme weather events might have made them think of what Munich Re said last week, that extreme weather events had tripled in frequency in the last 30 years and that insurability was becoming a serious issue indeed. And that was because of climate change.
We thought the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill by Oil Giant BP , and their complete inability to clean it up may have made them stop and take notice that the extreme risks associated with what Naomi Klein calls extreme energy were just too great to get into.And that we might think if BP were powerless to do anything to stop a spill then there was really no-one that knew how to do it.If the US Government was powerless , then maybe New Zealand might realise it was powerless to stop the risks associated with  off shore oil. And for a country that makes its living from its environment , maybe we would see how important it is to protect that environment .And that oil spills in the Great South basin or off our coastline just don't do that.

But oh, how wrong we were.
Finally the New Zealand energy strategy is released …three days after a massive new open cast mine gets resource consent in Denniston…
And what do we get with our coal? Oil . Extreme oil .Off shore, deep drilling.  100% Pure Coal and Oil? All in one week . 

And , oh, we still have an ambition of 90% renewables. But the oil industry and the coal industry shouldn't worry because we certainly won't put any grunt into making that happen.
No thought that perhaps we might be able to provide transport fuels by renewable electricity fed into the grid at night , despite the work done by the Ministry of Transport and Transpower three years ago that showed just how well renewable vehicles would work in this country.

No thought of how to promote additional renewables in a country that is abundant in them.

No mention yet of fracking, but its there between the lines and in the formation of a high hazards unit as well.

So coal, oil, and fracking. 
Is it a sad and depressing read?
I'm sure the worlds mining companies and oil companies didn’t find it so.