Pedal to the metal folks: climate won’t wait for COVID
The government is rushing through a COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill which includes backsliding on the Zero Carbon Act. Whack in a submission TODAY TUESDAY! It’s easy as
Just popped up on the radar: the helpful peeps at Generation Zero have spotted that the “COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill” includes a whole bunch of bad stuff. Submissions close TODAY!
In essence, delaying “cos COVID” stuff that simply mustn’t wait: climate action.
They’ve a very helpful submission guide here that covers all the random stuff the Bill is proposing to do, and responds.
You should submit too! Easy peasy!
We’ve replicated the gist of the Gen Zero guide here, and added our submission below (a bit more targeted than their comprehensive one).
How to submit:
- Click here to go to the submission page for the COVID-19 Response (Management Measures) Legislation Bill
- Click “I am ready to make my submission”
- Select that you’re submitting “as an individual”, and “No” for oral submission*, then hit “Next”
- *Unless you would like to do an oral submission! Oral submissions are very impactful. They will be 11am-12 wed, & 9-12 thurs & fri. When you send in your submission you can indicate a time you want to speak, or otherwise they’ll email you and ask 🙂
- Enter your contact details
- Complete the online submission form by filling in the following boxes with ideas from below!
The best submissions are heartfelt stories from your life on how climate change impacts you and what you want to see the government do.
If you’re not feeling super creative / interested in writing your own story – please still submit the content below! - You can copy/paste, pick and choose the parts that resonate with you most, or adapt these ideas as starting points for a more personalised submission. You can write as much or as little as you’d like.
[State if you’d like it to be anonymous or named]
[Editor Isabella’s submission (climate-focussed) for your inspiration!]
I/We wish to make the following comments
We mustn’t use COVID as an excuse to delay climate action.
Both internationally and at home, we need to show that this stuff is too important to delay. What we do in this moment will be a powerful signaller because this is the first time we’ve looked like really getting the proverbial ball rolling. If we delay now, that initial “just getting started” momentum will suffer.
Obviously the whole Emissions Reduction Plan is a big deal and may well need more consultation on bits. But there’s already plenty of stuff ready to go – the first Emissions Budget, and its successors – which have had more than enough due diligence and public consultation and are great candidates for getting the ball rolling.
It’s realistic to nail our colours to the mast for delivering at least the first Budget before Glasgow and not seek extensions to the Dec 2021 deadline. If we show up in Glasgow without anything to hold up, especially if we’ve undermined our own domestic commitment to our citizens and undermined the very purpose of our own ZCA this way – it’ll be a body blow for people’s faith that our government will do anything meaningful about climate change. This is an appalling breach of faith, not to mention appalling policy given the urgency of significant action.
The same goes for “recovery” projects with injections of public money that will impede emissions reduction or even increase emissions, like major roading projects and support for car-dependent urban sprawl.
Everybody’s found COVID disruptive and hard, but our future is only going to get more disrupted and uncertain. There’ll be another pandemic, another natural disaster, another crisis, so on and so on. There’ll never be “a good time” or even “a less bad time” to reduce emissions. The only really good time to have started was 30 years ago so it’s crucial we start now and do it seriously: go hard, no backsliding.
I/We wish to make the following recommendations
DO NOT extend the statutory deadline for the first emissions budget from its original deadline of 31 December 2021.
DO NOT delay the ERP. We need to go hard and go fast on climate action.
Government needs to get its act together to deliver bold, meaningful, fast action on climate in future, including during “exceptional circumstances” like pandemics.
DO NOT extend the fast-track Bill : its shortcutting of partnership with iwi is only one of its issues.
IF the Bill is extended, funding criteria must ensure the Minister declines all applications inconsistent with our climate goals and the NPS-UD.
[Editor: I ticked Yes to submitting in person cos I’m going to give it a crack! Never done it before and am nervous but hey, this is really important.]
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