Prime Minister Shirks Responsibility On Global Climate Commitment

In an interview with Q&A this morning, the Prime
Minister refused to say whether he would commit to meeting
the Paris Agreement, the international climate agreement
which commits all countries to act locally to keep global
warming below 1.5 degrees.

“Climate commitments
aren’t numbers on a page to be toyed with at political
whim. They’re hard scientific limits, requiring each
country to do our bit for a liveable planet,” says Green
Party Co-Leader and spokesperson for Climate Change Chlöe
Swarbrick.

“This morning, Christopher
Luxon basically told the nation he didn’t care, refusing
to commit to meeting the promises we’ve made
internationally as recently as last week with his Climate
Minister at COP29.

“Change is
unfortunately already locked in because of decades of
political neglect. We’ve seen the consequences in ever
more frequent climate change charged weather events ravaging
rural and urban Aotearoa. Political leaders today are
actively choosing whether to make that worse, or to act with
urgency.

“When the man who styles himself a CEO
focussed on targets and deliverables tells you he doesn’t
want to commit to meeting the hard scientific limits for our
collective survival, he’s telling you he cares more about
profit than people or the planet.

“Climate change
has been created by extractive, short-term economic thinking
exemplified by Christopher Luxon’s so-called
leadership.

“A better world is
possible.

“Next weekend the Greens will unveil our
alternative Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP), which will make
crystal clear that we can have an economy that supports
people and the planet, instead of exploiting and exhausting
both,” says Chlöe
Swarbrick.

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