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Labor won the parliamentary elections in October, among other things, promising to clean up the country’s lakes and streams, which are in deplorable condition. Jacinda Ardern received renewed confidence from voters and will file a motion to declare a climate emergency next week.
The Green Party put forward such a proposal last year, but it was rejected by a margin of one vote.
“Unfortunately, we did not manage to pass the motion on the climate emergency last period, but we will be able to do it now,” Ardern told TVNZ.
In a report from last year On New Zealand and the climate, nine priority areas are listed where action is needed. Among other things, animals, plants and ecosystems are threatened. The water in the countryside and cities is polluted. He also mentions the fishing industry, which has a great negative impact on the sea around the island.
For a country that attracts millions of tourists with the slogan “100% Pure New Zealand”, it hurts that 90 percent of seabirds and 76 percent of freshwater fish are endangered or at risk of extinction, as noted in 2019 in an official report on biodiversity.
But what about the climate emergency? will mean purely practical is not clear. Details have not been made public. “A public relations ploy,” said David Seymour, Member of Parliament for the laws.
– If you have a strategy, you don’t have to declare an emergency. If you declare an emergency, your strategy may not work.
Todd Muller of the opposition National Party gives a similar criticism and dismisses Arden’s initiative as “pure symbolism.”
Last year, nearly 100 cities in the C40 network declared a climate emergency around the world, Stockholm being one of them. The European Parliament has done the same and in May of last year the United Kingdom became the first country to declare it.
What does climate emergency mean differs depending on who announces it. In general, curbing climate change is a non-binding commitment.
– This type of statement stands and falls with the fact that they are actually followed by an action. The steps that will be taken to achieve the goals play a role and are absolutely crucial to credibility, Roger Hildingsson, a political scientist at Lund University who researches environmental policy, told TT.
