About 50 students gathered on the steps of Parliament today and called on MPs to work together on climate change .
MPs from Labour, National, the Greens and the Maori Party were urged to form a circle with the students and hold hands.
They then repeated a little chant pledging to work together to address climate change.
After a song was sung they were then urged to jump in the air in unison and wave their hands in the air, a feat which few MPs managed to do.
The show of unity did not last long and as soon as the MPs returned to Parliament, political parties continued to cross swords over an emissions trading scheme (ETS).
The previous government passed an ETS just before last year's election but National put it on hold because it considered the cost to the economy would be too high.
It was revised and changes have been put into the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill.
The ETS seeks to limit emissions, which New Zealand is required to do under international agreements, by putting a price on carbon.
Eventually all sectors of the economy will come under it, starting with industry, energy and transport in July next year.
Many industries will be given carbon credits to allow them to adjust and to make up for the fact that their international competitors will not face the same cost of polluting.
In Parliament, the Greens and Labour questioned the Government's plans for allocation of the units, while elsewhere in Parliament MPs considered the legislation setting up the ETS
Parliament's finance and expenditure select committee began hearing submissions on the ETS bill last week with angry scenes as Labour MPs accused National of trying to further shorten an already curtailed examination process.
Many submitters said then they had been given very short notice and told to appear for 10 minutes or possibly lose the right to submit.
This process continued today with the first of three marathon sessions set down to hear submitters in 10 minute sessions.
Forest owners featured today with complaints about how they are being treated in the carbon credit allocation.
They wanted to be able to convert some forests into farmland and then not get punished economically if they replant unforested land elsewhere.
This is known as offsetting.
This is not allowed under international agreements on carbon trading, but foresters say New Zealand's allocation of credit should be used to set up an internal offsetting system within this country.
Many submitters said there was no explanation of why some industries were allocated more credits than others and that too much detail about the ETS had been left for future regulation.
