pn620. Declaration of Climate Emergency: The right direction but what size is the step? Ardern, Seymour, Shaw, Swarbrick, Thunberg, Bradbury, Farrar

Parliament  will vote on Tuesday whether to  join the UK, Canada, Ireland and France by declaring a  climate emergency. This was announced today by PM Jacinda Ardern. She said declaring a climate change emergency is not, in and of itself, tangibly do anything – it's more of a signal towards doing more for the climate. "A declaration is just that." Ardern said. Over 50 NZ scientists support the move, which has significant grassroots support and has already been enacted by some local councils. 

But whether it's just window dressing as ACT's David Seymour maintains (nothing more than a "marketing stunt that won't stop a tonne of emissions... If you have to declare an emergency, maybe your policy isn't working.. What we need is a simple, effective response. ACT would tie NZ's  emissions price to the prices paid by our major trading partners, so we can do our bit without pushing businesses overseas.”) or whether the Greens can obtain more substance, as its spokespeople James Shaw and Chloe Swarbrick intend, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Greta Thunberg  has blasted politicians for their "green wash" hypocrisy.

P.S.

Declaration opposed by the Left (Martyn Bradbury in The Daily Blog)

and by the Right (David Farrar on Kiwiblog) 

My position is captured in the headline: right direction but how big the step?  

-- ACW