PM turns down Lawless' free flight offer 

Source: ONE NewsJim Salinger

The Prime Minister John Key's turned down the offer of a free flight to Copenhagen, Denmark for climate change talks next month.

Greenpeace has been running a fundraising campaign and actor Lucy Lawless and Jim Salinger took a cheque for $4,781 to parliament, hoping to hand it to Key. But she was turned away as she did not have an appointment.

The international climate change meeting in Copenhagen will be a big step towards getting world leaders to agree on greenhouse gas emissions targets, but Key has said he won't attend.

He said on Tuesday there was little chance a binding treaty would be signed in Copenhagen - despite earlier talk of an international resolution being on the cards.

Key said he was comfortable sending Environment Minister Nick Smith to represent New Zealand.

His attitude has not gone down well with Greenpeace, which has been running a "Key to Copenhagen" fundraising drive involving cake stalls, sausage sizzles and donations.

Dr Salinger, a climate scientist, and actress Lawless have been tasked with presenting the proceeds to Key, and plan to visit parliament early Wednesday afternoon with the cheque and a boarding pass to Copenhagen.

"Copenhagen is the most important meeting of our time - it could set us on the path of positive change, or put the planet on a road of destructive climate change," Salinger says

"Despite recent suggestions the talks are set to fail, all that's required to make them work is political will at the highest level."

Salinger says world leaders are the only ones who could make the meeting a success - not the bureaucrats representing them.