Hi John, 

Today, Parliament declared a climate emergency, committing New Zealand to urgent action on reducing emissions.

Over the past three years, we’ve made tackling climate change a priority. We’ve passed the landmark Zero Carbon Act, banned new offshore oil and gas exploration, established the Climate Change Commission, worked with farmers on a world-leading agreement to reduce agricultural emissions, and invested in green jobs to support our COVID recovery. Outside of these big moments, climate has always been a priority of all our policy work, and has been integral to our decisions on issues like housing, energy and transport.

But we know that for the sake of future generations, we cannot sit still, when the climate crisis continues to move at pace. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time, and we cannot afford to wait until it’s too late to do our bit.

By declaring a climate emergency, we’re demonstrating our commitment to urgent progress on the challenges ahead. At the same time, we’re also taking practical action to reduce New Zealand’s emissions, move to a low-carbon economy and help us meet our climate goals.

That’s why, alongside today’s emergency declaration, we also announced our plan to decarbonise the public sector by 2025.

Our goal is to move to a carbon-neutral Government, through initiatives such as switching the Government fleet to electric vehicles, replacing coal boilers with cleaner alternatives across public sector buildings, transitioning to energy efficient buildings, and offsetting our remaining emissions to create a direct financial incentive for the Government to reduce emissions.

On top of this, we’re continuing with a wider programme of work to move towards a low-carbon economy, including initiatives like increasing investment in green public transport, stepping up action on waste and plastic, and continuing to work with the primary sector, as well as committing to 100% renewable electricity by 2030.

There’s a lot to do, and today’s announcements are just one part. However, I’m committed to making sure that all our work brings about lasting change - which means building consensus across the political divide. This way, we’ll ensure we can have a real impact on climate change, and create a better future for our children and grandchildren.

As we move forward with this work, I’ll keep you updated on all that we’re doing to build a greener, more sustainable New Zealand. For now though, you can read more about today’s announcements here.

Thanks,

Jacinda