The Country 24/11/25: Dr Jacqueline Rowarth talks to Jamie Mackay

 One of New Zealand's leading primary sector academics takes the Climate Change Talkfest (aka Cop 30) to task.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fortnightly. She writes a column for us on our website
The Country dot co dot m Z. She's one of
our leading primary sector academics. The name is doctor Jacquelin
Roweth and Jacqueline if you don't mind a compliment on
a Monday, this is one of your better efforts. And
not that your other efforts aren't good, but this is
good because you were scratching an itch for me with
this column. You put the boot. You put the boot

(00:20):
into the COP thirty conference that's just finished after eleven
days of blah blah blah, as Greta would put it
in Brazil. What are these achieve?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
That's the issue. Lots of people doing their best to
do good work, but what actually comes out of it
in terms of hard stuff, not very many things, because
it all costs too much. And that's why we have
the fossil fuel people, the big lobby there saying don't
do this, it will screw the global economy. It's why

(00:51):
we've got New Zealand there saying we're doing our very best,
and yes we've put our goals of slightly more packed
to call than they were before. It doesn't mean we're
not still trying, but that it doesn't always go down
very well with the activists.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Well, fifty six thousand were registered for Brazil COP twenty
nine had also had fifty six COP twenty eight that
was the mother of all COPS eighty four thousand. You
can't get that many people in a room or online
and ever ever come to some consensus.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
No, and you can't even have the accommodation and proper
facilities for them. And so Bilen they were trucking people,
I mean coaching people to other places so that they
could get together. It just becomes a fossilsy or bonanza.
I would have thought, with all people being transported about
the globe.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
I would love to know the carbon footprint of these
COP conferences. Look, we got a fossil award, didn't we
in Brazil for changing our methane targets reductions from twenty
four to forty seven to fourteen to twenty four, which
is still going to be quite onerous, but totally sensible.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, And that was the point the government tries to make,
is that we are trying to provide food to most
of the rest of the world. Ninety five percent of
everything we produce in terms of animal protein is exported,
and of course it doesn't feed the world, but we
produce that food for very low greenhouse gas impacts, and

(02:23):
that makes it quite difficult to do anymore without affecting
food production. And that was the point of the Paris
Agreement in twenty fifteen. We are doing everything we can,
we're maintaining food production, but there is a tipping point
and if we go over that, then the whole of
the economy is affected. And we just have to go
back and say, in New Zealand, what matters to people most,

(02:45):
it's the cost of living and that's food, rent, all
of those sorts of things, and actually climate change is
about eights on the list, not one.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Is there a bigger Is there a bigger punisher in
the world than greater Tonbergs?

Speaker 2 (03:01):
How dare you I death stolen my dreams? Well, we
just need to think about what she thought her dreams
really were. Because everybody has the dream of a good life,
a better life, and the parents and the grandparents tried
to make a better life for their children, and they've
given them education if they actually go to school, and

(03:22):
that the education, the science, the engineering, the technology, that
is what is going to make our lives even better.
So let's stick with school and get some details.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well, I reckon, Grita must have bunked off quite a
few days weeks years of school.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yes, yes she did, and she's now at Vataday, except that,
of course she's over the holidays. She's been trying to
save warring nations as well. So she is unusual and
she's doing what she thought was right at the time.
But sometimes, just like with Coop, we need to say
done it, darlings, or done it people. Let's try a

(03:58):
different process for actually getting some agreements about what we
can do for the future.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
I want to quote Paula Bennett when it comes to
Greta zip it sweetie. All right, that's my thought, that's
my thoughts on it. See you later, Oh tang five