New Zealand has been urged to be bolder at COP24 in Poland, the annual United Nations climate change conference.<\/p>\n
Greenpeace International Executive Director, Jennifer Morgan, says the New Zealand delegation has been \u201cquiet\u201d at the conference, which is at odds with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern\u2019s bold action earlier in the year to ban new oil and gas exploration permits.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause there are so few countries on our side, we urgently need New Zealand to be a champion,\u201d Morgan said from the conference in Katowice, Poland. <\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand must be vocal on supporting the latest IPCC report – which shows we have just 12 years to halve carbon emissions – and support a process to significantly raise our global climate ambitions by the year 2020.\u201d <\/p>\n
Morgan has requested a meeting with New Zealand\u2019s Minister for the Environment, David Parker, to raise her concerns.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a press event at the conference overnight (NZT), she called on New Zealand to step up and be a climate change champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand needs to separate itself out from positions of the umbrella group, which includes Australia, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, the US and Norway,\u201d Morgan says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe New Zealand Prime Minister made international headlines with her strong position on climate change and ban on new oil and gas permits. We need New Zealand\u2019s COP delegation to be just as vocal now, while they have the chance on the world stage. They also need to show their empathy with developing countries, including their friends in the Pacific, and commit to financial support to the Green Climate Fund.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenpeace New Zealand Executive Director, Dr Russel Norman, says developed countries like New Zealand must take the lead when it comes to climate action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe targets of every country at COP24 need to be more ambitious if we are going to stay within safe global warming. Right now, we\u2019re on track for a three or four degree temperature rise, which would cause mass extinctions and the displacement and death of tens of millions of people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Zealand was celebrated internationally for taking action and becoming one of the first countries in the world to ban new oil and gas exploration permits, protecting four million square kilometres of ocean from the extraction of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall countries can make big waves. Right now, we have an opportunity to stand in front of the world and champion bold climate leadership. I hope it\u2019s an opportunity our representatives take.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the UN climate talks in Poland entered their second week, Greenpeace activists projected a message to world leaders at COP24 demanding urgent action to turn the tide on the worsening climate emergency.<\/p>\n
They projected the words: \u2018Politicians Talk, Leaders Act\u2019 and \u2018No Hope Without Climate Action\u2019 onto the roof of the COP24 venue, the Spodek, in Katowice.<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n
For more info contact:<\/p>\n
Sophie Schroder in NZ, +64 21 086 47450 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.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t New Zealand has been urged to be bolder at COP24 in Poland, the annual United Nations climate change conference. Greenpeace International Executive Director, Jennifer Morgan, says the New Zealand delegation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4846,"comment_status":"closed","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":"New Zealand called on by global leaders to step up at #COP24","p4_og_description":"Greenpeace International Executive Director, Jennifer Morgan, says the New Zealand delegation has been \u201cquiet\u201d at the conference, which is at odds with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern\u2019s bold action earlier in the year to ban new oil and gas exploration permits.","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-4845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAaron Gray-Block in Poland +61 (0)437 845 150<\/p>\n\t\t\t