Parliament passes a climate emergency motion in the House

Parliament has officially declared a climate emergency in New Zealand, a move Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called “recognition of the next generation.”

It was a “science-based statement,” he told MPs in the House this afternoon.

After she moved the motion, which was rejected by the National and Act, but supported by the Greens and the Maori Party, Ardern announced a set of new measures in an attempt to curb climate change.

The government now requires all its agencies and ministries to exclusively purchase electric vehicles and will require that all public sector buildings meet an “green standard.”

This is part of the government’s goal of making the entire public sector carbon neutral by 2025.

“It’s up to us to make sure we demonstrate a plan of action and a reason for hope,” said Ardern, who was the one who introduced the motion in the House.

She had previously said that simply declaring a climate emergency alone was not enough and needed to be backed up with substance.

That was a sentiment shared by National, whose climate change spokesman Stuart Smith told MPs that Ardern’s motion was “nothing more than a mark of virtue.”

But Ardern argued that the policies announced today by the government showed that the motion was not just empty words.

“At the global level, we have entered an era of action,” he said, before asking parliamentarians to get “on the right side of history.”

New Zealand is the 33rd country in the world to declare a climate change emergency; joins countries like the UK and Ireland.

“It is up to us to make sure we demonstrate a plan of action and a reason for hope,” Ardern said.

One of the ways it plans to do this is through the Government’s new electric vehicle mandate.

It’s a lofty goal: there are currently nearly 16,000 vehicles in the government fleet.

Government agencies will now be required to “optimize their car fleet” by purchasing electric or hybrid vehicles, when electric vehicles are not appropriate for their required use, such as for some military purposes.

To pay for this, the Government will use its $ 200 million State Sector Decarbonization Fund.

That money will also help pay for another goal: the phase out of coal fired boilers in your ministries and agencies.

There are approximately 200 coal-fired boilers that currently heat water and buildings in the state sector; the largest and most active will be removed first.

National opposed the motion: Leader Judith Collins did not speak in response to the motion and left the room mid-debate.

But national deputy Nicola Willis said she had no doubts: “Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of our time.”

He said National agreed with the global mission of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But he said it was unclear how declaring a climate change emergency would actually cut global emissions.

“My suspicion,” he said in the House, “is that the Government intends for this motion to distract New Zealanders from their incredibly poor record on climate change.”

Act was equally critical: “Today’s climate emergency was a triumph for post-rational politics with sentiments rather than facts that drove the government’s response to climate change.”

The motion in the House was approved by 76 votes to 43; the Greens, perhaps unsurprisingly, supported the motion.

“We are saying this is an emergency that has a level of equivalence to any Civil Defense emergency,” said Greens co-leader James Shaw.

The statement was supported by the Council of Trade Unions; its president Richard Wagstaff said it marked a more urgent step towards a Just Transition for people working in carbon-based industries.

Greenpeace called the motion a “victory for the power of the people,” but it challenges Ardern and his government to quickly move forward with policies and actions to reduce New Zealand’s climate pollution.