I’m writing to you from on board The Rainbow Warrior.
Yesterday, we sailed into Auckland, crossing the beautiful Hauraki Gulf and past Rangitoto, before being welcomed with a pōwhiri from Ngāti Whātua on Princes Wharf.
After Matauri Bay, this is the first port of call in our Making Oil History tour of Aotearoa, to celebrate New Zealand’s victory over offshore oil exploration, and to launch a very exciting next stage in our campaign…
We’re calling on the Government to stop subsidising the oil industry, and instead put solar panels and batteries on 500,000 kiwi homes. Will you join the call?
This year, we made history. After close to a decade of fighting together for an end to oil and gas exploration, we had a significant win. People Power forced the Government to listen, and in April, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a ban on all new offshore oil and gas exploration permits.
New Zealand became one of the first countries in the world to do this, returning us to our position as a world leader on issues of great moral fortitude.
We’ve taken the right first step. But this is only the beginning. Oil giants with existing licenses to explore and drill could continue to exploit our seas for decades more. To really make oil history, we’re going to need a plan. If we made significant investment into modern and clean energy, we could make dirty energy obsolete. To get there, we’ll need to transform our energy system.
Today, we’ve unveiled a plan to solarise 500,000 New Zealand homes over the next 10 years with money currently being used to subsidise the oil and gas industry.
But we’re going to need your help to call on the Government to make this plan a reality.
By kitting out half a million homes with solar and batteries, we could quite quickly provide a much-needed injection of clean electricity into the New Zealand energy system.
Not only would this help to reduce our climate pollution, but it would put power back into the hands of New Zealanders, increase the resilience of our national grid, and lower energy bills across the board.
It’s already possible to power our cars, buses and trucks on clean, homegrown electricity from the sun, and to run our factories on clean energy, instead of drilling the seafloor for gas.
However, until now, big energy companies have gotten in the way. Threatened by the idea that every one of us could put a power plant on our roof or in our community, energy companies have tried hard to block ordinary people from installing solar.
As a result, New Zealand has fallen behind. Less than 19,000 homes have solar right now – 50 times less than a nation like Germany.
For too long, the rules have been rigged in favour of big energy companies. And it’s holding us back. It’s time to take the power back.
Join us as we call on the Government to seize the sun and make oil history.
Arohanui, Amanda
Join our call on the New Zealand Government to make climate crisis its nuclear free moment by taking the climate emergency seriously, with real action now.
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