| New Zealand’s failure to reduce emissions to its Kyoto Protocol target means the taxpayer still faces a $1.1 billion net liability after all the ETS charges have been paid. The ultimate figure depends on future carbon prices and it could be as much as $5.7 billion, based on Treasury advice. Years of narrow accounting, which had given the impression that the government was at various times in credit under the Protocol, has finally been abandoned – at least in part. This year’s Budget broke with the past by recording key deforestation liabilities on the books, thereby signalling the real cost of New Zealand’s 22% overshoot of its Kyoto target. >
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| New Zealand women are being exposed to cosmetic products containing a type of nanomaterial that has been stripped from the shelves in Europe and Australia. Products containing nanoparticles called “fullerenes” remain on sale in New Zealand even though the European cosmetics industry has pledged not to use them until more is known about their safety. Three product lines – Perricone MD’s Ceramic Eye Smoother and Skin Smoother and Dr Brandt’s Lineless Cream - are labelled by the manufacturers as containing fullerenes. Other major cosmetic companies appear to be using other types of nanomaterials. The cosmetics are part of a rising tide of consumer products containing nanomaterials that have been put on the New Zealand market without risk assessment by ERMA and often before the information is at hand to allow such analysis.
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