National’s Blue Green conference on the weekend suggests that the party has moved on from outright denial that cliamte change exists to grudging acceptance that it is a phenomenon but “balance” requires that it is tolerated.
For those of us who were without electricity to their houses in Auckland for several days, it’s worth turning our thoughts to Vector.
The two greatest powers at work in the world right now are the roles of global finance, and climate change. In New Zealand we don’t yet see how these intersecting worlds of finance and climate change are interacting, or the government’s role in forming that interaction. But this is close.
National now seems to adopt the position that climate change is real and has to be addressed. But it is refusing to accept that to address the problem New Zealand is going to have to give up its reliance on oil and gas.
The Government has announced that there will be no new offshore oil and gas exploration permits issued under the block offer process.
or more accurately one. A failed vanity flag referendum.
The Government has released a draft Government Policy Statement on Transport for consultation. A radical shake up of the Transport system is being proposed.
Highlights from the Climate 2050 event in Wellington last night.
Gareth Hughes explains in just over 1 minute why we can’t use the fossil fuels we’ve already found, let alone any we might go exploring for.
The text of Energy Minister Megan Woods’ speech to the recent petroleum conference where she outlined the Government’s approach to the oil industry and the Government’s intention to achieve sustainable change.
The Minister for Women on her recent trip with the NZ delegation to the UN.
Two posts from No Right Turn.
“Fundamentally, climate change means it is us or the oil industry. We know whose side the Greens are on. But people are doubting Labour, and they only have themselves to blame for it.”
Also a post on banning fossil-fueled cars.
The Government is reconsidering the future of New Zealand’s block offer process which releases exploration permits to the oil industry for exploratory drilling.
It’s Our Future spokesperson Oliver Hailes was on RNZ yesterday succinctly pointing out the problem with Labour and NZF’s u-turn on the TPPA. He also recently co-authored an article in the NZ Medical Journal on the TPPA, climate change and health.
Don’t hold your breath for recommendations of radical tax reform from the Tax Working Group. Chair Sir Michael Cullen says the 2020 election will be a referendum on tax and he is already kicking for touch
“The foreign shareholders in that toxic industry will kick and scream, but its basicly them or the planet – and if we want to save the world and keep our own coastal cities above water, they have to go.”
“This is more than just a temperature anomaly. It is an off-the-scale event. Why is the Arctic meltdown not headline news in every paper?” – George Monbiot
If someone said hey, your house is going to burn down, we don’t know if it’s in the next hour or next week, what would you do?
Snippets from the first day of the 2nd Pacific Climate Change Conference and Cyclone Gita.
“Offsets alone would not achieve the zero carbon target and a significant systematic and behavioural change would still be needed…”
Cyclone Gita has caused devastation across the Tongan islands, and is being called the worst storm in at least 60 years.
A big storm is set to hit Auckland next week. And it won’t be the last.
The New Zealand Government has rejected the OIO’s proposal to allow Bathurst to purchase DOC land for coal mining purposes. And in Australia the Queensland Labor Government is working out how it can back out of an agreement to permit the Adani coal mine to proceed.
“We can’t burn existing fossil fuel reserves if we are to avoid climate catastrophe.” – Russell Norman.
In the middle of the Southland drought, people in Invercargill are no longer allowed to water their gardens.
In his State of the Planet speech, James Shaw lays out the Green Party’s bold vision and plan for a truly sustainable economy to replace the crumbling architecture of the last 30 years.
(image from Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics)
“At 46 degrees latitude south, New Zealand’s southern most city has regularly been experiencing similar temperatures to cities near the equator. When we were sizzling at 32 degrees, we equaled Cairns, were 2 degrees warmer than Jakarta and Suva and 6 above Nairobi. These cities are used to such temperatures and their ecosystems have adapted to it, it has been a severe shock to ours.”
The sixth Labour led Government has made a good start to its term. But what policy results will New Zealand have to vote for and campaign on in 2020?
The recent development of accident and disaster insurance over the last century is now having a profound influence on buffering climate change. The Economist had a recent article with an excellent graph. Perhaps this is worth encouraging to give a price signal and a political lobby against that of the polluter lobby.
It has been a decade now since Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide proposed amalgamating all of Auckland’s city councils into one enormous entity by dumping much of the Royal Commission’s proposals. Well it’s time to hold its results to account.
It’s always bugged me that our military forces are under-used in New Zealand. It’s time we invited them to protect us from climate change.
Our ingenuity.
…let’s ridicule Donald Trump.
Denis Tegg has been responsible for showing that the previous Government stonewalled and hid a report prepared by the Ministry for the Environment which warned local bodies of the threats posed by sea level rises caused by climate change.
The “Adapting to Climate Change in NZ” report.
Spoiler alert: We need to do better.
