New Zealand to watch international climate leaders summit from the sidelines

New Zealand is not speaking at an international summit of climate leaders this weekend, yet it is watching from the sidelines.

The Climate Ambition Summit 2020 is being held on the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The United Nations, the United Kingdom and France are co-sponsors of the summit, which has also been dubbed “Sprint to Glasgow”.

The UK government was supposed to host the annual UN climate summit (known as the Conference of the Parties or COP) in Scotland this year, but it was delayed until 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The December online summit is instead a placeholder, starting at 9am ET (3am NZT), and can be viewed on demand.

According to the UN, the goal of the event is to build momentum and call for greater ambition and climate action. Governments are invited to submit more ambitious and high-quality climate plans, as well as Covid-19 recovery plans, new financial commitments, and measures to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C.

READ MORE:
* Doubts are growing abroad about New Zealand’s climate commitment
* New Zealand may be excluded from climate leaders summit
* Prince Charles advocates a radical new economic model to avoid a climate ‘catastrophe’
* The moment Greta Thunberg saw US President Donald Trump

The summit program includes a long list of speakers from around the world, including many world leaders such as Justin Trudeau from Canada, Frank Bainimarama from Fiji, Angela Merkel from Germany and Xi Jinping from China, as well as international business leaders and organizations.

But New Zealand is not on the list and neither is Australia.

There has been some criticism and questions about why New Zealand is not speaking, especially considering our stance on climate change action, which caused the government to declare a climate emergency last week.

A government spokesman says New Zealand was invited to express interest in a speaking space. However, the event was happening too soon after the establishment of the new government and he was in no position to have any appropriate policy announcements ready to launch at the event.

“For example, the review of our nationally determined contribution, emissions budgets and long-term emission reduction and adaptation plans are subject to national processes that go beyond the Sprint to Glasgow event,” the spokesperson said.

New Zealand officials will participate in the event, however New Zealand will not speak, the spokesperson said.

Another government spokesman added that the organizers of the summit demanded that new announcements be made in order to have spaces to speak.

“New Zealand’s preference is to make our main new announcements in New Zealand first, as we did recently for our announcement on a carbon neutral public service. We have shared this preference with the organizers ”.

Climate Change Minister James Shaw said in a statement that the Government had put New Zealand at the forefront of climate action for the past three years and, as the declaration of a climate emergency shows, “We have every intention of staying there”.

“It is likely that many of the commitments that other countries will make at the Sprint to Glasgow event will be similar to those that this Government has already committed to, as a goal to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050,” he said.

“Having already made these commitments, we are eager to hear what other countries will bring to the table.”

On Wednesday, the group of intergenerational climate ambassadors met with Shaw at the Beehive, which was the last day Parliament met for the year.

The group of climate activists, who are between 13 and 73 years old, warned that, unlike parliamentarians, the greenhouse gas that warms our atmosphere will not take a vacation this summer.