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Source: Green Party
Headline: Native birds beat rats in Budget 2018
I’m really proud as a Green Minister that there is significant new funding in Budget 2018 to save our wildlife from predators like rats, stoats and possums. An extra $81.28 million over four years will protect New Zealand’s precious native birds in the biggest area ever- a whopping 1.85 million hectares.
Source: Green Party
Headline: Oil and gas decision historic day for New Zealand
The Green Party is heralding today’s announcement ending new fossil fuel exploration in New Zealand’s oceans as a massive step towards a stable climate and to protecting our marine life and beaches.
“The Green Party and thousands of New Zealanders have been working for decades towards this day and this decision – that fossil fuels are not our future,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw.
“Ending deep sea oil and gas exploration has long been a key goal of the Green Party and today, in Government, we’ve delivered on it.
“The decision means our beaches, coastlines and marine life are now far less likely to be affected by a Deepwater Horizon-style oil spill in the future.
“Our Pacific neighbours, who are on the frontline of rising seas, can know that we’ve got their backs.
“Scientists tell us that we can’t burn almost all the oil, gas, and coal that has already been discovered. We simply cannot justify looking for more.
“Today we have drawn a line in the sand and set our country on the path to a clean energy, low carbon future. This represents an enormous opportunity for the creation of new jobs and new technologies that our dependence on fossil fuels has held back for too long.
“Although there will be no immediate impact on jobs, I can understand that some communities will have some concern over the transition away from fossil fuels and towards a low-carbon economy. That is why this Government is committed to a just transition, and to investing in well-paid, high-tech clean-energy jobs, particularly in our regions.
“As we move towards a fossil fuel-free future, we will move together – communities, government and business alike. Just last week, the Government announced a $20 million economic development investment in Taranaki, including conservation, tourism, clean energy, and the Maori economy.
“This is truly the nuclear free moment of our generation, and the beginning of a new and exciting future for Aotearoa New Zealand,” said Mr Shaw.
Source: Green Party
Headline: Greens celebrate policy win on upholding Māori protocols
The Green Party is celebrating the passage of a Bill that will require coroners to consider Māori protocols, which had its first reading in Parliament last night.
The Coroners (Access to Body of Dead Person) Amendment Bill was drafted by Justice Minister Andrew Little to implement a recommendation in the Māori Affairs Select Committee inquiry into whānau access to and management of tūpāpaku (deceased bodies).
The inquiry came about as result of advocacy from former Green Co-leader Metiria Turei and then was driven by Marama Davidson when she was elected as an MP and took on the Māori Development portfolio.
“I’m incredibly proud that the work we initiated and drove at select committee has brought about this Bill, which will make a real difference for whānau,” said Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson.
“The Bill implements a real policy win for the Greens, and I congratulate Minister Andrew Little for showing leadership on progressing these recommendations.
“It addresses one of the most important aspects of our inquiry which is ensure whānau can stay with their loved one’s tūpāpaku,
“This will help ensure that people have the opportunity to farewell and honour their loved ones in a way that upholds their culture, and tikanga Māori.
“While many coroners already consider cultural protocols, this will ensure it is consistent across the country and that will help families from all cultural backgrounds, not just Māori.
“It is a testament to the consensual work of all parties that this Bill passed first reading with unanimous support,” said Ms Davidson.
The Green Party is celebrating the passage of a Bill that will require coroners to consider Māori protocols, which had its first reading in Parliament last night.
Source: Green Party
Headline: Acceptance Speech: Election as Female Co-Leader
Tū kaha, tū maia, tū rangatira.
Ahakoa te aha, ahakoa ngā piki me ngā heke, ka haere tonu te mahi ki te whakamana i ngā whanau, ki te tiaki i te taiao, ki te hangaia tētahi huarahi hou mō tō tātou nei ao katoa.
E tū ana tēnei uri o Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, me Ngāti Porou.
Tīhei mauriora!
Tēnā koutou katoa
It is the greatest honour of my life to have been elected as the Co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.
I want to begin by acknowledging Julie-Anne Genter. I have an enormous respect and admiration for her talents and skills as a politician and that has only grown stronger over the course of this campaign.
There could be no one better to have on your team than someone with the skills, experience and political nous of Julie-Anne, who is doing amazing work as Minister for Women and Associate Minister of Transport and Health.
I know Julie-Anne, that as well as the policies and change you will implement as a Minister, that your contribution to growing our movement will be absolutely essential.
While it is a great honour to have been elected, it is also an enormous responsibility and it is truly humbling that our members have confidence in me to help lead the Party.
The campaign has been a really positive process and I want to thank the party leadership for their work in organising the campaign, branch organisers and members all around the country who fed and billeted and transported us and welcomed us and then grilled us – you are the backbone of our party.
I also want to thank my campaign team and supporters, and acknowledge those members who did not vote for me.
I will be a leader who strives for consensus in everything I do. All of our contributions and views are essential in the work we have ahead of us.
To my family and my children – I will see you even less, and I know that this part of the job was already the hardest bit for us. But I also have one of the strongest family support networks that a mother in this role could ever have and so I know we will be okay.
And every day I will continue to use the privilege of my family support, to represent the many mamas who should also be in leadership positions but aren’t fortunate to have the support I do.
To those mothers, I will never forget your leadership and my responsibility to you.
As a party of government we are now facing a whole new set of opportunities and challenges.
History shows that smaller parties struggle to retain their support in coalition governments, lose influence and can sometimes fracture.
My number one goal as co-leader is to make sure that doesn’t happen to us.
We can’t clean our rivers, save our native species, lift our families out of poverty, build warm safe houses and new public transport if our party isn’t united and positive, governing and campaigning for change.
And there is a lot to change.
The National Government has left our country in a mess. It is worse than even we imagined.
Steven Joyce was right, there is a fiscal hole. We see it every day. In the sewerage in the walls of Middlemore Hospital where the Government was more interested in delivering a surplus than making sure our babies were born in safe conditions.
We see National’s fiscal hole in our homeless and unemployed,
In our impoverished families
In our lonely and isolated elderly
We see it our polluted rivers
In our threatened species
And in our climate pollution
But National didn’t just leave a fiscal deficit, they left a moral one too.
More than ever we need to deliver on our policy programme and stamp our mark on the Government with bold and effective Green solutions to the fiscal and moral deficit left by National.
More than ever we need to be strong and united. Backing our Ministers and MPs to lead lasting Green change and working with our coalition allies to go even further, be even bolder.
We can make the change Aotearoa needs and grow our vote, returning after 2020 with more MPs and influence.
I am a leader who, alongside James, can deliver that real change and grow the Greens by representing a broad cross-section of New Zealanders.
James has been incredible in leading our Party on his own for the last eight months, as we wrapped up a tough campaign and entered Government for the first time.
I am very much looking forward to working with James and with our different backgrounds, skills and experiences I think we will make a strong leadership team.
Between us we represent the broad church of green voters. Our different backgrounds and experiences mean we empathise and understand the cross section of issues from economic to social. From human rights to environmental sustainability. We are a team that can reach all.
James and I will work to regain the trust and support of those voters who left us in the last election, and we also need to be reaching out to new audiences.
In order to be a genuine and relevant voice for modern Aotearoa, we need to reflect its diverse reality.
We need more members from all backgrounds and communities.
We need to be present in multicultural, Māori and Pasifika communities, in provincial and rural communities, and in the suburbs, with women, young people and workers.
I have the connections and credibility in these communities. I’m proud to have helped lead the work to start to diversify the party over recent years and as Co-leader I will prioritise it.
I worked as a youth worker in South Auckland while a young person myself, and also served on the national board of youth workers.
I worked as an advisor at the Human Rights Commission for 10 years and then as Chief Panellist on the Owen Glenn Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Child Abuse.
As an activist for social and environmental justice, I stood with many communities on the frontlines of the climate change and inequality crises and the struggles for indigenous rights.
I have demonstrated the ability to pull together teams, inspire the best in everyone, and elevate the voices of those who are not otherwise heard.
And I intend to make that a defining feature of my leadership, elevating voices and working alongside our friends up and down the country campaigning for change.
We may be in Government, but we are still a party that relies in the passion and action of those at the grassroots without whom we are powerless.
It is that grassroots leadership that has always inspired me, and I am so proud to have worked to support so many community campaigns and movements.
Such as standing year after year on the banks of the Ōmaru River in Glenn Innes to restore the mauri of the awa.
Or standing with my whanaunga in the North and on the East Coast to oppose deep sea oil exploration and drilling, and with our Pasifika whanaunga who are fighting the rising seas.
Or working with groups calling for human rights here and around the world, and with advocates for economic transformation and social justice.
For too long those with the most power and the most to gain have had the loudest voice in our political debates.
I will make sure those without a political voice are heard, and I will be the only leader of a political party in Parliament that brings to the table deep sustained experience in these communities.
The talent, experience and skills that we have in our caucus is incredible. I’m committed to working alongside all of our MPs to support them in their work, and I will always be needing their guidance and honesty to keep me in check.
Each of our Ministers and MPs has significant portfolio depth, and unique profiles and audiences that will be crucial to our success of not just surviving, but thriving in Government.
As the most progressive party in Parliament, it is the role of the Greens to continue to be a loud and active voice on behalf of our communities.
In our Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Labour Party we commit that “together, we will work to provide Aotearoa New Zealand with a transformational Government”.
We need to be working every day to achieve that, recognising the urgency and scale of the challenges we face. I am looking forward to working even more closely with our colleagues right across the Government.
The next few years will be critical for Aotearoa and the world as we grapple with the crises of climate change, inequality and environmental degradation.
In this country, two men own more wealth than the poorest 30 per cent of the adult population.
The richest 10 per cent have more than half of the wealth, while 90 per cent of the population owns less than half of the nation’s wealth.
We are losing our indigenous biodiversity at an alarming rate – three-quarters of native fish, one-third of invertebrates, and one-third of plants are threatened with, or at risk of, extinction.
We have among the highest rates of homelessness, child poverty, suicide among young people, and incarceration in the developed world, alongside among the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world, and rivers so polluted you can’t even swim in them.
These environmental and social crises are the direct result of a flawed and broken economic model.
Having grown up in South Auckland and the rural communities of Hokianga and the East Coast in the 80s, I witnessed first-hand the devastating effect the introduction of that economic model had on communities and what followed; intergenerational poverty and the tragic, direct legacy of suffering and suicide in our regions and urban centres.
We are still feeling that impact, here, now.
Parliament needs to turn our faces to the streets, to communities right up and down this country, and understand the hardship and struggle that so many of our people are facing.
I know what it is to struggle to find a house to rent. I know what it is to not have enough food for your tamariki. And I know that no parent should have to go through that.
I will continue to hold on to and champion those realities in the corridors of power.
New Zealanders have been waiting far too long for a fundamental shift in our politics, for the return of care and compassion, for a real commitment to our natural world.
For an economic system that measures its success by the wellbeing of the people and the environment, not simple GDP growth and the massive accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of a few.
That’s why it is so exciting that the Greens are a part of this new Government and so important that we do a good job of delivering on our priorities, especially in our Confidence and Supply Agreement.
The Green Party vision for Aotearoa would restore us as a world leader through the greatest challenges of our time.
It would ensure all children grow up in healthy, liveable cities, in warm, dry homes that are affordable for their parents.
And that they can swim in the local river and drink water from their tap without getting sick.
A vision for a country where all people have a liveable income and people don’t have to work two or three jobs just to survive.
And that recognises the central importance of honouring our founding document, Te Tiriti o Waitangi and celebrates our unique and vibrant diversity.
And while our challenges are daunting they are not insurmountable.
All around me I see green shoots of hope, and the inspiring leadership of communities who we need to help lead our country in a better direction.
Together we have never been in a better position to make change.
E ai ki te kōrero
Mā te kotahitanga e whai kaha ai tātou katoa
In unity we will succeed
And just quickly before I finish, I want to wish my dad a happy birthday. As per usual I did not buy you a present. But I got you this big venue for your party. And in light of this coleader announcement today, I also got you a whole new and exciting level of fatherly anxiety. Happy birthday!
Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.
Source: Green Party
Headline: Marama Davidson elected new Green Party Co-leader
South Auckland-based MP Marama Davidson will join James Shaw in the role of Green Party Co-leader, after the result of the leadership contest was announced this morning in Auckland.
Ms Davidson secured 110 delegate votes. Julie Anne Genter, the Minister for Women and Associate Minister of Transport and Health, also contested the Co-leadership role and won 34 votes.
Ms Davidson entered Parliament in 2015 following Russel Norman’s resignation. She is the mother of six children and has before entering parliament worked as a youth worker in South Auckland and as an advisor at the Human Rights Commission for 10 years. She was the Chief Panellist on the Owen Glenn Inquiry into Domestic Violence and Child Abuse.
“It’s the greatest honour of my life to be elected Co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa. It is also an enormous responsibility and for party members to have confidence in me to lead the Party is truly humbling,” said Ms Davidson.
“I want to congratulate Julie Anne Genter. My respect for Julie Anne and her obvious talents has only increased over the course of the campaign. I’m proud to call her a colleague and a friend and I know she will continue doing a fantastic job as a Minister.
“History shows that smaller parties struggle to retain their support in coalition governments. My number one goal as Co-leader is to make sure that doesn’t happen to the Greens.
“Without ministerial responsibilities I can focus on the party and ensure the full delivery of our confidence and supply agreement while maintaining unity. With one leader as a Minister and one not we can able to avoid the pitfalls other parties entering Government have experienced who have seen their support fall.
“I intend to stay connected to the community I come from, South Auckland, and other communities like it around the country. I will be the only party leader in Parliament that brings to the table deep sustained experience of some of the poorest and most disadvantaged communities in our country and I plan to ensure they are given a voice.
“The community I come from is at the coalface of the most pressing issues we face as a society: rising poverty and inequality, the housing and homelessness crisis, polluted rivers and poor health and education outcomes. I will ensure their voices are heard, in Parliament and within the Green Party.
“Our Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Labour Party commits to providing a transformational Government. I am looking forward to working even more closely with our colleagues’ right across the Government to achieving our Government’s ambitious agenda,” said Ms Davidson.
“I am incredibly excited about this new era of leadership in the Green Party and getting to work with Marama to deliver great green change and further growing our party,” said Mr Shaw.
“Marama is a magnetic politician, people are naturally drawn to her and respect her. She is acutely aware of how some people and communities are struggling in this country, and she will be an excellent advocate for their interests in Parliament and in our Party.
“Between us we represent the broad church of Green voters. Our different backgrounds and experiences mean we empathise and understand the cross section of issues New Zealanders face. We are a team that can reach everyone committed to a better and fairer New Zealand.
“Member elected Co-leaders have provided decades of unity and stability to the party, and I am sure this new pairing, the first as part of a Government, will be no different.
“I want to congratulate Julie Anne Genter, whose leadership skills and political acumen remain invaluable to our party.
“I have no doubt that Julie Anne will continue to be a stand-out minister in this Government, well into the future.
“I want to thank Green Party members who participated in the leadership contest. Our electoral system is the most democratic of any party and this result represents a clear mandate for Marama to lead our party,” said Mr Shaw.
Source: Green Party
Headline: End of irrigation subsidies a win for taxpayers and environment, say Greens
The Green Party is today marking a significant step toward cleaner rivers and less climate pollution, with the wind down of taxpayer subsidies for industrial irrigation schemes, as outlined in the Confidence and Supply Agreement between the Green and Labour Parties.
“Today’s announcement marks an important step in cleaning up our rivers and protecting our water and climate for generations to come,” said Green Party Co-leader James Shaw.
“The Green Party’s Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Labour Party promised to wind down government support for irrigation. Today’s announcement delivers on that promise.
“Many of these industrial-scale irrigation schemes weren’t economically viable without taxpayer subsidies and led directly to over-intensive dairy conversions and increases in water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
“New Zealanders want clean rivers and lakes, and they want to be able to trust the water coming out of their taps. We also want to play our part in the global fight against climate change, by significantly reducing our emissions.
“Large-scale irrigation projects and dairy conversions put all of that at risk. The industrial-scale irrigation schemes subsidised by the Crown Irrigation Fund created dependency, increased farm debt and led to increased pollution.
“We need environmentally friendly systems for conserving, managing and storing water, and which build resilience in our farms and in our towns,” said Mr Shaw.
Source: Green Party
Headline: Greens condemn Immigration NZ data use
Green Party Immigration spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman has this morning written to the Minister for Immigration, expressing concern about the Ministry’s discriminatory use of immigrants’ personal data.
“We’re very concerned to hear that Immigration NZ is using an algorithm that includes age, gender and ethnicity to determine access to immigration opportunities, including identifying people who are supposedly more likely to commit crimes based on their ethnicity,” said Ms Ghahraman.
“We know that the previous government introduced the use of so called ‘risk assessment’ algorithms in a range of other areas, using data in ways it was never intended and affecting the interests of New Zealanders based on discriminatory grounds.
“This is an issue of general concern for the Green Party and for me as a former human rights lawyer, which is why I raised it with Government earlier this year, initiating work to stop to this kind of breach.
“The use of identifiers such as race, age, and gender in determining access to resource or opportunity is a clear breach of the New Zealand Human Rights Act.
“This sort of inappropriate information gathering and use of so-called ‘risk assessment tools’ was specifically raised by the United Nations in our last reporting cycle, including a recommendation that we address this issue through legislation.
“This latest breach by Immigration NZ is heartbreaking. Immigrants are not data points in an algorithm, they are people who contribute to our communities and to our economy. Government departments should treat them accordingly.
“I have written to Minister Lees-Galloway this morning to express the Green Party’s concerns at this practice, and I expect he will look into this issue thoroughly,” said Ms Ghahraman.
Source: Green Party
Headline: Takahē returning to Kahurangi: Kia kaha!
They’re big, blue, beautiful and will hopefully breed. Fingers and toes are crossed that a group of takahē will settle into life in Kahurangi National Park after being released on March 20.
The Department of Conservation released 18 birds onto the Gouland Downs near Heaphy Track is a historic attempt to create the first new wild population outside of Fiordland.
The takahē was thought to be extinct until 1948 when Geoffrey Orbell re-discovered the bird in the remote Murchison Mountains, in Fiordland. That’s the only place they have lived in the wild since then.
Trying to establish another wild population is a risky step, but one worth taking if we want to see takahē in growing numbers in large areas of their former natural range.
The release is the result of a lot of hard work, good science and dedication. It marks an important stage in the species’ recovery which is now 300 birds-strong. That a bird that was classified Nationally Critical has now improved to be Nationally Vulnerable is a testament to the breeding programme and predator control work that DOC and its partners have done.
The takahē population is increasing by 10 percent annually so secure island and mainland sanctuary sites that are currently home to most takahē are filling up fast. We’re at the stage where we have a blueprint for breeding birds successfully – but without suitable habitat with low predator numbers their future is still not secure.
The Kahurangi takahē release was supported by Takahē Recovery Programme partners Ngāi Tahu and Fulton Hogan.
The birds will be closely monitored over the coming months and years to track survival, health, habitat use and breeding success.
The post Takahē returning to Kahurangi: Kia kaha! appeared first on Blog | Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Source: Green Party
Headline: Greens welcome chief science advisor’s prisons report
The Green Party is welcoming a report released by the Prime Minister’s Chief Scientist, Sir Peter Gluckman, which acknowledges our justice system is broken and incarcerating more New Zealanders won’t fix it.
“This report points the way forward for justice in New Zealand, and fits with what the Green Party has been advocating for some time,” said Green Party justice spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman.
“I know, having worked on the frontlines of our criminal justice system, that so-called ‘tough-on-crime’ rhetoric and policies do not stop crime or protect victims; the data and evidence clearly shows that.
“If we take that approach, our prison population will continue to rise at record rates.
“We need a justice system that prioritises early intervention, rehabilitation and mental health and addiction support.
“The Green Party has always seen imprisonment as the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff when it comes to making our communities safe.
“As law-makers, we need the courage to change tack, based on what the evidence tells us will actually reduce crime.
“We will continue to push for changes to our justice system to ensure it’s more equitable, and serves a better purpose than just locking people away,” said Ms Ghahraman.
Source: Green Party
Headline: Speech to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group on Land – Christchurch
Kia tau te rangimārie o te Rangi e tū nei
o Papatūānuku e takoto nei
o te Taiao e awhi nei
ki runga I a tātou.
Tīhei mauri ora!
Ki nga kaumatua o Ngāi Tuāhuriri, tēnā koutou.
Ki nga rangitira o te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, tēnā koutou.
Me ki nga manuhiri I konei mai i te IPCC, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.
To the 120 scientists and experts, from 59 countries, who are gathered here, welcome to Aotearoa New Zealand and welcome to Christchurch
The work you are doing on climate change and land is obviously of critical and even existential importance to our common future.
But from my perspective, as New Zealand’s Minister for Climate Change, your timing couldn’t be better.
Because the questions around the relationship between climate change and land use, forestry and agriculture are central to the work you are doing here right now.
CLIMATE POLICY
The Paris Agreement obliges every country on Earth to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of this Century.
Our new Government has made the commitment that we here in New Zealand will hit this target by the very beginning of the second half of the Century, in the year 2050.
Across Government we are setting targets for different sectors consistent with this commitment.
For example, we aim to be producing 100 percent renewable electricity generation by 2035, or sooner.
We’re almost there now at 80 to 85 percent generation from hydro, geothermal, wind and solar, but we can go further.
Over the coming months we hope to make other announcements about transport emissions, electric vehicle uptake, and so on.
It’s an ambitious programme. It has to be.
We live in a part of the world where sea-level rise, coastal erosion, cyclones, and droughts are happening with the kind of increasing frequency and force that hasn’t been seen before.
One recent estimate suggests that $19 billion of assets are at risk from sea level rise and flooding events – including 5 airports, 50 kilometres of rail, 2,000 kilometres of road and 40,000 homes.
Another report estimates that “the costs of weather events to New Zealand’s land transport network alone have increased in the last 10 years from $20 million a year to over $90 million annually.”
Flooding in 2011 in the upper South Island – about 5 hours north of here – cost nearly $17 million.
And there have just been two more major storms in that general area over the past month, by the way, which will add millions more to the region’s bill.
Then there was one of the worst droughts on record in New Zealand in 2012-2013.
It affected the entire North Island and the west coast of the South Island, and is estimated to have cost the country $1-and-a-half BILLION in lost agricultural exports.
Quite literally – we cannot afford to ignore climate change and do nothing about reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
That government report (Climate Change Adaptation Technical Working Group) I released last year explains why, because, the report says, “Overall, the cost to New Zealand of climate change impacts and adapting to them are expected to be higher than the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
In other words, it’s more cost-effective to transition to a net zero emissions economy than pay for the repairs and clean ups.
So we plan to lock that commitment into law with the Zero Carbon Act.
In addition to putting net zero by 2050 into law, the Act will establish an independent Climate Change Commission, roughly modeled along the lines of Britain’s Climate Committee but suited to New Zealand’s needs.
We’ll be leading a major programme of engagement with the public and with experts on the design of the Act in June/July this year and introducing it to Parliament in October.
We’re also in the process of revising our Emissions Trading Scheme.
Simply put, the scheme as currently designed hasn’t worked. In the decade or so since it was introduced New Zealand’s emissions have increased, rather than decreased, and more forests have been cut down than planted.
LAND USE
Which brings me to land use.
Specifically agriculture.
We are a small country with a big reliance on agriculture.
It means that unlike – say – the United Kingdom, almost half of our greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture. 47.9 percent.
That presents challenges. Should agriculture be included in an emissions trading scheme? And how, or how much?
No other countries include agriculture in their emissions schemes so we’re considering largely uncharted territory here.
But when I was at COP23 in Bonn last November, a number of countries, who are starting to realise they’ll also have to deal with agricultural emissions soon, asked me what we’re planning.
Just as the Dutch are now exporting their expertise in urban adaptation to sea level rise, developed over centuries, so New Zealand has the opportunity to develop and export our expertise in net zero emissions agriculture.
Given New Zealand has such significant agricultural emissions, and given we have a long history of agricultural innovation and adaptability, we need to look at the issue and look at it as quickly as possible if we want to catch the crest of that particular wave.
So, we will establish an interim Climate Change Committee to begin work on the agricultural emissions question until we’ve established the full Commission under the Zero Carbon Act around the latter half of next year.
The Interim Committee would pass on its advice and recommendations to the Climate Change Commission to follow through on.
Land is a critical part of the climate change puzzle for so many countries – as this IPCC Working Group well knows.
For us in New Zealand land is the point where the majority of environmental pressures are borne.
TREES
Which is why a massive and ambitious key initiative in the New Zealand Government’s action plan on climate change is trees.
We intend to see one billion trees planted over the next 10 years.
Part of the challenge – beyond the issue of such large scale planting – is making the right choices about which are the right types of trees to plant in the right places at the right time.
It’s about getting the right mix of slow-growing indigenous tree plantations combined with much faster growing exotic species.
The right mix and locations will bring a number of benefits:
The work underway now is to map out land, both government-owned and private holdings, where forestry will be a good option.
CONCLUSION
New Zealand is embarking on the kind of reform and transformation we haven’t seen for more than 30 years.
Choices around our land and how we use it will be critical in our overall climate change strategy.
Everyone gathered here today knows the severity of the challenge we face as a global community.
As Minister for Climate Change, I am proud that New Zealand is hosting you, and I am proud of the work New Zealanders do in the IPCC and other international climate forums.
30 years ago New Zealand took a moral stand against nuclear weapons and has worked internationally since then for international non-proliferation and disarmament.
Our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has called climate change the nuclear free moment of this generation.
If we want to help lead the world towards meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, we must create a moral mandate underpinned by decisive action at home to reduce our own emissions.
And, as a country, we must contribute our best and brightest people to the IPCC and UNFCCC prrocesses.
The science and evidence base that you people in this room build, and the very important work you do to communicate it to policy-makers is fundamental to what I and my political colleagues must do.
When I first grasped the enormity of the climate challenge about 20 years ago, I was working at Pricewaterhouse in London and I read an insurance industry report that said that the global insurance industry itself was going to collapse by 2050 under the weight of climate change related claims.
Almost every discussion about climate change then degenerated into arguments where people questioned the science.
I am so pleased that, in most discussions now, that no longer happens.
The science is settled; largely thanks to the work of the IPCC; both in collating the evidence and in communicating it.
It is now up to politicians, business leaders and communities to make the hard decisions about what to do to reduce emissions and to adapt to the changing climate.
Our decisions should always be underpinned by the evidence that the IPCC brings to the table.
And that evidence should always be updated and re-assessed when new data becomes available.
As the IPCC marks its 30th Anniversary, it feels like we have reached a time of new realisation and new resolve around climate change.
As chair, Hoesung Lee, noted in his address at celebrations in Paris a couple of weeks ago:
“30 years of IPCC assessments have concluded that anthropogenic climate change is real, its threats will increase, and we have the means to stop it cost effectively.”
I agree with him, and I am grateful for his organisation’s vision and commitment.
To you all here today, for the work you do collectively, I also say thank you.
No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa.
END
The question around the relationship between climate change and land use, forestry and agriculture are central to the work you are doing here right now.