Climate emergency declaration by New Zealand government - Dec 2020

The motion was passed with Labour, the Greens and te Pāti Māori all voting in support, and National and ACT opposed.

It includes a promise to set an example by reducing its own waste and emissions. "[Parliament will] show leadership and demonstrate what is possible to other sectors of the New Zealand economy by reducing the government's own emissions and becoming a carbon-neutral government by 2025."

Ardern also launched an initiative requiring the public sector to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. "Government agencies will have to measure and reduce their emissions and offset what they can't in order to achieve carbon neutrality.

The programme also includes an immediate focus on phasing out the largest and most active coal boilers, a requirement for government agencies to purchase electric vehicles and reduce the size of their car fleet, and for a green standard for public sector buildings. It is backed by the $200 million State Sector Decarbonisation Fund.

Climate Minister James Shaw said this builds on the progress the government has made over the last three years. "In our first term, we put in place one of the world's most ambitious frameworks for reducing emissions, including becoming one of the only countries in the world to put in place a legally binding requirement to stay within the threshold of 1.5 degrees of global warming above pre-industrial levels.

The climate emergency declaration notes the "devastating impact" that volatile weather will have on New Zealand, as well as the "alarming trend in species decline".

"Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time," the motion says. Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said the declaration was "long overdue". She called on the government to be bolder and implement tangible policies that "reflect the urgency" of this emergency. "We look forward to working with MPs across the house to get these to get these and many more policies across the line and ensure that Aotearoa plays a leading role on the world stage in protecting papatūānuku and taking real climate action", she said.

(Abridged from RNZ Politics/Environment page 2.12.2020)