Shaw bites back at Greta’s dig on climate
Teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg has taken aim at New Zealand for what she saw as the Government’s lack of action on climate change.
Early this month Parliament officially declared a climate emergency in New Zealand — a move Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called an “acknowledgment of the next generation”.
It was a “declaration based on science”, Ardern told MPs on December 2.
But the response has irked Swedish 17-year-old Thunberg, who in an opinion piece described the declaration as virtue signalling with little substance.
She tweeted a line from a Newsroom comment piece, which said: “In other words, the Government has just committed to reducing less than 1 per cent of the country’s emissions by 2025.”
She then added her own response, saying New Zealand’s lack of response is “nothing unique to any nation”.
“Text explaining New Zealand’s socalled climate emergency declaration. This is of course nothing unique to any nation.”
Climate Change Minister James Shaw has since responded to Thunberg’s dig, saying: “Greta Thunberg is essentially pointing out what we already know — that we have a long way to go to narrow the gap between what our emissions are right now, and what they need to be in the future.
“We are working on this as quickly as we can and the declaration of a climate emergency is actually helping — because now every part of government is clear that action to cut emissions is a priority.
If that was the sum ambition of any government, then that would be worthy of criticism. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
“This is what climate emergency declaration should do.
“It is not an end in itself, rather it signals our intent to do everything we can to tackle the climate crisis and build a better, safer future for our kids and grandkids.”
Ardern also responded to Thunberg’s comments, saying New Zealand had bigger goals than that one target.
“If that was the sum ambition of any government, then that would be worthy of criticism; it is not our sum ambition and it is not the totality of our plans on climate change,” the Prime Minister said.
“But again, I think that it’s actually for us just to get on with the business of fulfilling our obligations and
expectations,” Ardern added.
In the comment piece for Newsroom, Marc Daalder argues “the declaration of a climate emergency is just virtue signalling if it isn’t backed up by immediate, radical action to reduce emissions”.
He goes on to say “the Government has just committed to reducing less than 1 per cent of the country’s emissions by 2025”.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends countries reduce emissions to 45 per cent below 2010 levels by 2030.
New Zealand’s net emissions will be just 6 per cent below 2010 levels according to Ministry for the Environment projections.
During the declaration announcement, Ardern mentioned a suite of new measures in a bid to curb climate change.
The Government now requires all its agencies and ministries to exclusively buy electric vehicles and will mandate all public sector buildings to be up to a “green standard”.
This is part of the Government’s goal to make the entire public sector carbon neutral by 2025.
Thunberg appeared before the United Nations General Assembly in September this year and told world leaders: “You are still not mature enough to tell it like it is.
“You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal.”