WelCom December 2020
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern‘s government is set to declare a climate emergency in a step to increase pressure for action to combat global warming.
The government will put forward a motion in the first week of December to declare the emergency. The government said this as parliament reconvened on 24 November, after the general election won in October by Ardern‘s party.
‘We’ve always considered climate change to be a huge threat to our region, and it is something we must take immediate action on,’ the Prime Minister said, according to state broadcaster TVNZ.
‘Unfortunately, we were unable to progress a motion around a climate emergency in parliament in the last term, but now we’re able to.’
In her last term, Ardern‘s government passed a Zero Carbon Bill, which sets the framework for net zero emissions by 2050, with cross-party support in parliament.
If a climate emergency is passed, New Zealand would join countries like Canada, France and Britain that have taken the same course to focus efforts on tackling climate change.