The Climate Change Commission – the expert panel tasked with getting New Zealand carbon neutral – has written to the government asking it to apply a “climate change lens” to the post-Covid-19 spend-up.
The best way to engage in public debate on the lockdown is to be open, clear, and transparent and show the facts. A press release full of beliefs and reckons is unhelpful and irresponsible.
Oil giant OMV finally leave New Zealand, and Greenpeace releases its Green Covid Response plan to the government.
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
For global governance organisations, this is an important moment. This is the chance for them to demonstrate their worth and coordinate the response. In many ways how these structures respond becomes more important than the response of nation-states. This also is where the deficiencies and shortcomings of such organisations become very apparent. The noise coming from the EU in the last 48 hours is far from reassuring.
Rather than saving an industry that has multiple sustainability and resiliency failures, how about we regenerate local economies and set them to serve our communities?
Shouldn’t this global shock from this COVID-19 virus make us all wake up to the power of collective global action on climate change?
The Australian Liberal Government has signalled a movement away from solar and wind power to untested technologies including carbon capture, hydrogen and lithium. Meanwhile the woman who led the negotiations for the Paris Agreement is calling for civil disobedience to force institutions to respond to the climate crisis.
The point here isn’t to go ‘boo vegans’, it’s to point starkly to the problems with the current food and environment debate, and show case the pathways beyond the meat/no meat binary.
It has been reported that NZ First will oppose the Green’s attempt to make the country’s car fleet more sustainable and that it may hold up proposed gun law changes designed to address the problems clearly shown by the Christchurch massacre.
Science is showing that global food security is now at risk from climate change, farmers and gardeners are showing us how to adapt and mitigate at the same time.
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has attacked Greta Thunberg for not understanding the economics of climate change. But he has then been roundly criticised by a number of people, including his wife.
What if…
The right appears to be splintering on climate change, with former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull describing Donald Trump as the world’s leading climate change denier. And locally National MP Andrew Bayley has talked the profound effects of climate change on Antarctica’s ecosystems at the same time as Paula Bennett is attacking educational material designed to make children think about climate change.
National has hinted darkly that the theft of laptops from its headquarters was possibly motivated by political considerations even though it had been told of a similar burglary of a neighbouring office had also occurred recently.
Federated Farmers has started a petition against an educational resource that teaches about climate change and activism because it does not present their industry in a sufficiently positive way.
News Corp has had a bad week in the media with many questioning its continued climate change denial and its support for politicians refusing to accept the reality of climate change. But the most surprising opposition has been expressed by Rupert Murdoch’s son and News Corp director James Murdoch.
We’re at the tension point between the fear a fast transition will deprive us vs the fear that not acting fast enough will lead to climate change depriving us. Climate activists fear the latter, incrementalists fear the former.
David Farrar has criticised young people not for their passion about addressing climate change, but for not supporting nuclear power as a potential solution. Even though it is too risky, too expensive, and too late.
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s Blog
Australia is arguably no longer the lucky country. And if it does not resolve its addiction to coal it may not have a future.
The utter failure of the Australian Prime Minister to lead during the bushfire crisis reminds us that it’s care for our children and communities that drives climate action. When people mobilise politicians will follow.
In a groundbreaking decision, the Netherlands’ Supreme Court has ruled that the climate crisis is a human rights issue, and “the government must take urgent action on climate change to protect the fundamental rights of its people”.
“We want to make sure hospitals, schools and other public institutions can use energy in a more climate-friendly way, cut emissions, and lower their energy bills.”
Why is ACC dragging the chain on fossil fuel divestment, and why is Labour letting them?
It’s easy to mock the government’s latest single-use plastics ban, but the comprehensive plan it arises from is impressive work from Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage, including the shift to systems thinking and the far reaching implications of the government adopting this approach.
The climate crisis is one of the greatest threats to life on our planet, and as Prime Minister Boris Johnson should have fronted this debate. By failing to do so, he has shown himself to be a weak and feeble leader. By not engaging on the critical issue of climate change, Boris Johnson has shown not only UK electors, but the world that he is a fool.
Seven senior climate scientists have written a piece in Nature updating the science on climate catastrophe and urging action.
The Museum of Oil History and SS4C dancing the Macarena ended an awesome week of protest action against oil drilling in NZ.
Is it too early to call negative odds on Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy?
School Strike for Climate, Extinction Rebellion, That Humble Man, Greenpeace.
One hundred and sixty three British economists have signed a letter to the Financial Times to say they believe that Labour should form […]
As the climate catastrophe gets to another level of intensity, building new systems can be an antidote to feeling powerless or afraid in the face of the crisis.
A group of farmers protested against Government climate policies yesterday including policies which the National Party either established or supported.
While Australia burns its conservative politicians still refuse to accept the enormity of the climate crisis and are acting to hinder and prevent measures that need to be taken to address what is a clear threat to the country’s future.
