This year has driven home that we need urgent climate action. We’re on a
tight
deadline to achieve the emissions reductions needed, and there is no more time
for political inaction or delay.
Across the motu, New Zealanders are calling for strong climate leadership
from
the Government, which gives full effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and is guided
by
hapū exercising their tino rangatiratanga.
We call on all political parties to commit to the following actions:
Real emissions reductions
There is no place for climate-polluting industries in
Aotearoa’s future. Our Government must end coal, oil,
and gas, and transition polluting industries - in
particular energy, intensive dairying, and transport -
to climate-friendly alternatives. Cutting climate
pollution will create opportunities for a new way of
living that centres people and nature, rather than
industry greed.
- End new oil, gas and coal exploration and extraction
on land and at sea, and commit to the Port Vila Call
for a Just Transition to a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific.
- Accelerate the just transition to public and
locally-owned, nature-friendly, renewable electricity,
including by providing grants-based and equitable
finance for new renewables, such as household solar
and community energy projects.
- Transition towards high-density, low emissions
communities by making public transport fares free and
prioritising investment in walking, cycling, and
accessible public transport infrastructure over road
spending.
- Transition intensive dairying to low emissions
farming by phasing out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser
and imported animal feed, reducing herd size, and
banning new large-scale irrigation schemes.
- Ensure our laws reflect the urgency required to
address the climate crisis by strengthening the
Emissions Trading Scheme, legally requiring all local
and central government decisions to keep warming below
1.5 degrees Celsius, and establishing meaningful
environmental bottom lines in new planning rules.
Supporting frontlines communities
Climate change is already impacting communities around
the world, including here in Aotearoa. Supporting these
communities means ensuring that the effects of climate
change are minimised through adaptation processes, and
where they can’t be minimised, that these communities
are financed throughout the recovery process, and
compensated for the loss and damage caused.
- Protect communities by making room for rivers to
flood safely and enabling a managed retreat from
flood-prone areas, through stopping new development in
coastal and river flood zones.
- Stand with affected communities in the Pacific by
renewing and scaling up our climate finance
commitments, with new and additional funding to
address loss and damage caused by climate change.
Restoring & rewilding nature
Nature must be at the heart of New Zealand’s climate
response. Not only do oceans, wetlands, and forests
store huge amounts of carbon, they also play a key role
in mitigating the impacts of extreme weather events.
When we protect nature, we are also protecting people,
communities, and Aotearoa’s future.
- Maximise native forests’ role in absorbing carbon
and in protecting communities from flooding and
erosion by effectively controlling deer, goats, and
possums on all public land, and implementing a native
reforestation programme.
- Preserve the ocean’s crucial role in storing carbon
by shifting to ecosystem-based fisheries management
that ends bottom trawling and restores kelp forests by
reversing all kina barrens.
- Protect the role wetlands and estuaries play in
storing carbon and softening extreme weather event
impacts by doubling the area of wetlands in Aotearoa
New Zealand.