Published 19:38 IST, November 26th 2020
New Zealand to declare 'climate emergency' next week to address global warming
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that New Zealand had always considered climate change as a serious threat to the environment and the entire region.
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is set to put forward a motion to declare a ‘climate emergency’ next week, Ardern said in a live-streamed address with state broadcaster TVNZ. Stressing the need for immediate action to combat the global warming crisis, Ardern said that New Zealand had always considered climate change as a threat to the environment and the entire region. “Unfortunately we were unable to progress a motion around a climate emergency in Parliament in the last term, but now we’re able to,” New Zealand’s Prime Minister said in an address, adding, that it needs to be dealt with “seriousness” it deserves. According to sources of TVNZ, Green Party's Chlöe Swarbrick had sought to pass the motion in 2019 but it failed by one vote.
While in her previous term New Zealand’s leader failed to pass the global warming bill, she managed to introduce the ‘Zero Carbon Bill’ in her climate legislation with support from the opposition National Party. The bill aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of New Zealand by the year 2050. Ardern called the law New Zealand’s ‘nuclear moment’, referring to 1987 The New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act.
Declaring a climate emergency is a statement of intent about addressing the climate crisis. However, we know we have to back our words with action. We will work across Govt to ensure the declaration is backed with policy to bring emissions down. https://t.co/3KMDHFKk2l
— James Shaw (@jamespeshaw) November 26, 2020
Move 'beyond aspirations'
According to sources of New Zealand’s broadcaster Sydney Morning Herald, Ardern had earnestly urged to the members of The Coalition Government, which comprised of Labour, the Green party and NZ First, that the parliament had to move “beyond aspirations” and achieve more. The Green party co-leader and Climate Change Minister James Shaw had then indicated that the climate crisis was “the biggest challenge” as he acknowledged Ardern’s point that the world was “undeniably warming”. Meanwhile, the opposition leader Simon Bridges had pledged to introduce the bills related to the climate crisis if his party won the 2020 election, noting, that they had met the Paris targets in April 2016.
19:40 IST, November 26th 2020