Greenpeace says the Labour Party is copping out of tackling the climate crisis, following Chris Hipkins\u2019 announcement that if elected, Labour would accelerate climate action by reviewing the ETS (but allow agriculture to remain out of it), and recommitting to the Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n\n
Greenpeace Programme Director Niamh O\u2019Flynn says, \u201cThe impacts of climate change are real and tangible, like Cyclone Gabrielle, and the floods, storms and extreme weather we\u2019ve seen all over the country. Climate action must also be real and tangible to combat this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spent the last three years watching the Coalition Government systematically destroy every climate policy under the sun. For Labour to offer this as an alternative is pretty bleak.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
O\u2019Flynn says, \u201cA review of the ETS is not climate action. Committing to the Paris Agreement was done more than ten years ago in Paris \u2013 to make this statement now isn\u2019t climate action. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cClimate action means stopping climate pollution from the sector that is responsible for more than half of our emissions, industrial agriculture. It means phasing out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser. And an emissions trading scheme that doesn\u2019t even include the bulk of New Zealand\u2019s emissions is a joke.
\u201cHipkins is dreaming if he thinks Labour can work with the dairy industry to reduce emissions without regulating it. Last year Fonterra\u2019s emissions increased. This is an industry that has fought tooth and nail to continue to freely pollute our water and climate with no consequences or costs. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cMajor climate polluters will never regulate themselves \u2013 which is why it\u2019s an important role of the Government. And Labour is copping out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Last week, a UN report revealed that the world is set to breach the critical 1.5\u2103 global warming threshold. Staying below 1.5\u2103 of warming has long been considered necessary to avoid climate breakdown. O\u2019Flynn says that in the light of this revelation, Labour\u2019s announcement yesterday looks even worse.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe should be in crisis management mode now. New Zealanders and the world need better than a recommitment to a decade-old climate agreement without policy that will actively lower emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis is a regressive announcement from the party that once claimed that climate change was a \u2018nuclear free moment\u2019. If Labour hopes to form the next government, they need to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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Greenpeace says the Labour Party is copping out of tackling the climate crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":68021,"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":"","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":[16,51],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-78686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","tag-politics","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n