[ad_1]
Greta Thunberg, the creator of the global movement School Strike for Climate, has alluded to the lack of action behind the New Zealand government’s declaration of a climate emergency.
Thunberg, who became an influential figure since his solitary protests outside the Swedish parliament turned into a huge global movement, wrote on Twitter: “In other words, the [NZ] The government has just committed to reducing less than 1 percent of the country’s emissions by 2025 “… This, of course, is not unique to any one nation.”
The 1 percent figure came from a newsroom story, which the activist shared with her 4.4 million followers.
The story pointed out that the Government’s promise to make public service carbon neutral by 2025 appeared to cover only about 1% of New Zealand’s emissions, in the form of energy and transport use by the Government.
The carbon-neutral public service announcement was made at the same time as the government’s declaration of a climate emergency, in an attempt to back up the declaration with actions.
At the time, Climate Change Minister James Shaw told Stuff that the plan would target a much larger share of New Zealand’s emissions – 7 percent. However, it appears that crucial details of the plan are still being finalized, including how much it will directly reduce emissions from state-owned homes (owned by Kainga Ora), schools and hospitals. In September, an investigation by Stuff found that only eight of the 46 central government agencies knew how much carbon they were emitting.
It is unclear if Thunberg thought that a 1 percent cut was the only emissions reduction action New Zealand was taking, however the tweet caused a stir, and Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the government was working as fast as possible and aiming for carbon. -Reduce the legal frameworks that the old Labor-NZ First coalition approved in its previous term.
READ MORE:
* Five things Judith Collins has said about climate change
* Why NZ is cheating its emissions from flights, shipments and imported goods
* ‘Our future has been sold’: teenage climate activist takes on British MPs
The government has other policies in place, including the Billion Trees program, an emissions cap, a fund to replace companies’ coal fired boilers, and plans to boost 100% renewable electricity by 2030.
However, nothing announced so far would cut emissions enough by 2030 to help the world stay under 1.5 ° C heat, which is the goal of both the Thunberg school strikes and the Zero Carbon Act of the United States. Government.
For example, the current cap on how many emission units can be auctioned under the Emissions Trading Scheme would reduce the country’s greenhouse gas production by just 3% next year, below normal (or whatever officials estimate it would have happened without the new cover). By 2025, the reduction in ETS reforms will only be just 5 percent per year.
Hulu / Supplied
Climate activist Greta Thunberg in a scene from the Hulu documentary “I Am Greta.”
Those are just provisional numbers, and they are likely to be replaced as soon as the Climate Change Commission comes in with its carbon reduction recommendations next year.
The government has taken on the tough task of establishing a series of rapidly falling emissions budgets for the commission and its independent analysts. The first recommended budgets will be published in draft form in February, along with the commission’s recommendations for the government to adopt general policy measures to achieve this.
By December, the government will have said yes or no to the commission’s recommendations, and the state of New Zealand’s climate ambitions for the 2020s will be clearer.
Meanwhile, the government has not made deep moves to reduce transportation, agriculture or industrial emissions, which could see the country move faster ahead of the commission’s reports, although Labor’s plan to boost electricity supplies Renewable should help power private cars and some industries. away from burning fossil fuels. Similarly, requiring the public sector to buy electric vehicles could help shift the second-hand car market towards cleaner vehicles, although EV advocates say much more is needed. Proponents of clean transportation are also calling for a radical push for public transportation and investment in cycling and walking.
Without significant cuts to our emissions sources, our net emissions balance will be higher in the 2020s than it is now, due to changes in the pine harvest cycle.
The government did not present an ambitious commitment to announce it at an international summit on Saturday, celebrating five years since the Paris Agreement began, meaning New Zealand did not get a space to speak. Instead, he chose to wait for the commission’s reports next year.
