Parliamentarians will vote next week on whether Parliament should declare a climate emergency or not

Parliament will debate next week whether to declare a climate emergency in New Zealand, House Leader Chris Hipkins told MPs.

Speaking in the House after the Speech from the Throne, Hipkins said the motion will be debated next Tuesday.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will personally present the motion next week, according to a spokesperson.

This is not the first time that Parliament has tried to pass a motion of this type.

In May of last year, Green Party MP Chloe Swarbrick tried to pass a House motion declaring an emergency, but was torpedoed by National.

Since Swarbrick is a non-executive member of Parliament, not a minister, his motion could have been rejected with just one vote against.

But if the motion is made by a government minister, as it appears it will be by Hipkins, there is a normal vote.

As the House is overwhelmingly Labor, with the support of the Greens, the motion is very likely to pass.

Speaking to the Herald, Swarbrick said she was pleased that the government presented the motion to the House.

“The continued advocacy of grassroots climate activists put this on the agenda and was compromised, by most parties, during the election campaign.”

He said the Greens were very anxious about the progression of this statement, which he hopes to adopt next week.

Ardern said at the time of the first climate change emergency last year that the government had voted in favor of the motion because “we see this as an urgent matter.”

“We are not opposed to the idea of ​​declaring an emergency in Parliament.

“I would certainly like to think that our policies and our approach show that we see it as an emergency.”

However, it is understood that there was never an official motion from the Government as it was blocked by the partners of the Labor coalition, New Zealand First.

But National rejected the motion because it was simply “Green Party symbolism,” according to then-climate change spokesman Todd Muller.

He said National would be unlikely to vote to declare a climate change emergency until there was no proper plan and it wasn’t just “the Green Party waving its flag.”

Since the Greens first made the motion in 2019, there have been a number of protests outside Parliament, urging the government to declare a climate emergency.

Many councils across the country have already done so, as have many governments in other countries around the world.

The UK, Ireland, Canada and France have declared climate emergencies and more than 50 scientists from New Zealand have called for a declaration of a national climate emergency.