Winston Peters the Paris Agreement does not work. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says he wants to discuss the Paris Climate Accord with Pacific leaders as some might not be aware of how it is structured.
But a development and aid researcher says Peters is simply trying - and failing - to reconcile his domestic political views with the Pacific's climate change priorities.
For months, Peters has raised concerns over New Zealand's participation in the Paris Climate Accord on behalf of his New Zealand First party.
The treaty commits countries to designing climate action plans that limit global warming below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. More than 190 countries have adopted it.
However, Peters has said it fails to hold the world's biggest emitters to account.
"New Zealand First was the first party to say: 'Look, we owe our people, and we owe the world, actually a realistic analysis of what's going on here," he said. "Because if you've got an Accord that was signed and it means things, then either all the world's in on the Accord, or it's not."
New Zealand is historically responsible for just 0.3 percent of global emissions, according to the independent non-profit group Climate Action Tracker. Pacific countries are responsible for just 0.03 percent of the world's emissions, according to UN data.
Peters has pointed to the world's four biggest emitters - China, India, Russia, the US - as evidence the treaty does not work as he believes it fails to hold them to account.
President Donald Trump, who believes climate change is "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world", signed an executive order on his first day in office in January to withdraw the US from the treaty.
According to the Paris deal, developing countries, like India and China, have longer to peak their emissions and reduce them than developed countries. That condition acknowledges that developed countries are historically more responsible for the problem.
When asked whether he thought other Pacific nations would take a similar view to him of the Paris agreement, Peters said he believed a discussion was needed.
"We need to have a discussion with them, because I don't think many of them are aware of the present emissions contribution construction. If you're not aware of it, then you can perhaps press on making statements," Peters said.
"But if you're aware where the problems are, and maybe demand a dialogue with those problematic countries, you might be talking about some sort of long term solution."
Australia National University development and aid researcher Terence Wood said Peters comments did not make a lot of sense.
Wood said that, while the Paris Accord was imperfect, it provided a global starting point for addressing climate change - which Pacific nations have identified repeatedly as the region's top priority.
He believed Peters was simply attempting to reconcile incompatible positions on the issue, which shifted with his audience.
"I think the confusion stems from the fact that Peters is first and foremost a political chameleon, so when he talks to his domestic audience here in New Zealand, most of his supporters are conservative, and they tend to be older, and they're people who typically don't care about climate change.
"On the other hand, when he goes into the Pacific, he knows that people in the region, and also politicians in the region, definitely care deeply about climate change. And so once he's out in the region, he tries to make it sound as if he really cares about the issue too."
Peters spoke to RNZ Pacific while he was in Papua New Guinea for the country's 50th anniversary celebrations last week.
Wood said New Zealand's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord would be embarrassing, and detrimental to Pacific nations, which were on the front lines of the climate crisis.
"If we were to do something that was so at odds with the Pacific needs, I think we would really lose some sort of political capital or soft power in the region. We'd make ourselves a lot less popular," he said.
Notably, at the beginning of this month, New Zealand's deputy prime minister David Seymour - the leader of one of three parties in the current coalition government - called for New Zealand to leave the treaty.
However, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has said he has no intention of withdrawing. Luxon is the leader of the National Party - the majority party in the coalition government.
RNZ Pacific contacted Vanuatu's climate change minister Ralph Regenvanu, who has been a leading voice on climate action in the region, for comment. He did not respond.
The climate crisis is expected to remain a major political talking point for the region, particularly with Peters and Pacific leaders in New York for the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly this week.
