Greenpeace is today celebrating another win for people power after the new Government announced an impending climate emergency declaration, but says the declaration is empty words unless it\u2019s backed by policy that actually reduces New Zealand\u2019s emissions.<\/p>\n\n
Over 23,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Government to declare a climate emergency, and Greenpeace says those people will be expecting real climate action.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhen the house is on fire, there’s no point hitting the alarm without fighting the fire as well, and fighting the fire in New Zealand means tackling agricultural emissions,\u201d says Greenpeace campaigner Kate Simcock.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cAcross the world, communities are already feeling the devastating effects of the climate crisis, from wildfires to floods. Any climate emergency response prepared by the Government must be rooted in justice and equality. We cannot leave any community behind.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
The announcement came on the same day as the Government\u2019s Speech from the Throne, which outlines the Government\u2019s priorities for this electoral term. <\/p>\n\n
While the Covid recovery features clearly in the speech, Greenpeace says the only mention of New Zealand\u2019s biggest climate polluter, agriculture, is a nod to researching on-farm emissions reductions. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe Covid recovery presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build back better in a way that tackles the climate crisis at the same time. This Government should be prioritising significant funds for shifting New Zealand\u2019s industrial agriculture sector away to a more plant-based regenerative farming approach,\u201d says Simcock. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe already know what\u2019s causing the problem: agribusiness is profiting off climate catastrophe. Synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, for example, when applied to land releases more greenhouse gases than our entire domestic aviation industry.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe first and most obvious step this Government can take to rein in emissions from agriculture is to phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, and catalyse a shift to regenerative farming.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
ENDS<\/p>\n\t\t\t Sign on now to call on the New Zealand Govt to ban chemical nitrogen fertiliser.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t When the house is on fire, there’s no point hitting the alarm without fighting the fire as well, and fighting the fire in New Zealand means tackling agricultural emissions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":14594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"Climate emergency declaration a win but needs action","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[19,34,52],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-15138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-food-and-farming","tag-victories","tag-build-back-better","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n