13 Mar 2015

Greens say Tim Groser misled Parliament

2:38 pm on 13 March 2015

The Green Party has accused the Climate Change Minister Tim Groser of misleading the house on New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions.

Yesterday Mr Groser told Parliament that New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions' intensity had decreased 30 percent between 1990 and 2012.

Emissions' intensity is a measure of how carbon efficient an economy is.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said he has a written response from Tim Groser that said emissions' intensity has actually increased by 19 percent, which was vastly different to what he told Parliament.

"I assume he said that to the house because you know it's in an oral form, he's trying to confuse people so people think things are getting better. In fact New Zealand's economy is getting radically worse in terms of greenhouse emissions."

Russel Norman said the Government should stop trying to confuse New Zealanders about the country's role in causing climate change.

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