Responding to the leaked Ministry for the Environment report that estimates $19 billion of property is at risk in New Zealand from the effects of climate change, Greenpeace climate campaigner Kate Simcock says:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis report shows that the Government is fully aware of the devastating effects climate change will have on our communities and our economy,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about more than 130,000 people potentially being directly affected by sea level rise, flooding, and coastal erosion, almost 70,000 homes and buildings, and widespread damage to major infrastructure including roads, rail, and airports.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe estimated $19 billion of property that\u2019s at risk is phenomenal. To put it into context, it\u2019s far greater than any single spending promise in the lead-up to the elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is simply no bigger threat to the people of New Zealand, our environment, infrastructure, or economy than climate change – so the question is; why isn\u2019t the National Government talking about it?<\/p>\n
\u201cThree weeks out from the election and Bill English has been almost completely silent on the topic other than to say it\u2019s not something that Kiwis wake up in the morning and think about.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the background, his Government is continuing to push the expansion of oil, gas and coal to burn – the key driver of climate change – while burying reports like this that reveal the magnitude of the problem we face.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a key moment when Jacinda Ardern came out and compared climate change to her generation\u2019s nuclear-free moment, but we\u2019ve yet to see anything ambitious enough to tackle the seriousness of this problem in Labour’s policies either.<\/p>\n
\u201cClimate change must be the key issue for the election, and beyond. It\u2019s an existential threat to all aspects of our society and way of life, and we need an all-of-government and all-of-society approach to tackle it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greenpeace has just published a list of 11 things political parties should do now if they are serious about climate change.<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Responding to the leaked Ministry for the Environment report that estimates $19 billion of property is at risk in New Zealand from the effects of climate change, Greenpeace climate campaigner Kate Simcock says:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":"","p4_og_description":"","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":[6],"class_list":["post-718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","p4-page-type-story"],"yoast_head":"\n