Our response to climate change is the biggest can-kicking in human history. I’ve been learning about climate change for more than three decades. Today it’s common knowledge, primary school stuff. Yet it’s still not being properly addressed, not globally, and not in our own country.
Watching the cyclone death toll rise is a heart rending and angering experience. This did not need to happen. We’ve let it happen. It’s our collective fault.
We have a natural tendency to focus on what's right in front of us. But we mustn’t lose sight of the long term.
The global economy is slowing. This latest downturn stems from the Covid-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine. But their roots go deep into unsustainability. Our ever deeper and exploitative incursions into wild nature. Our grappling over land and fossil fuel resources.
That so many Kiwi families were taken by surprise is a tragedy. That our nation was surprised is a scandal. We’ve been warned about the onset of events like this for most of our lives. Scientists have warned us. Government agencies have warned us. Journalists have warned us. Protestors. Global government meetings. Charities. Banks. Insurers and business consultants. Our children. And now the planet is warning us.
There’s a thin line between lack of preparedness and negligence. We’re experiencing what happens when we cross it.
For decades people dismissed the Green Party’s focus on climate change as a fringe concern. Making the Green’s co-leader minister for climate change should have mainstreamed it. We’ve installed the Climate Change Commission to drive cross-party action. We have our first ‘climate budget’ out to 2025.
But we’re still dithering instead of delivering.
Every step in the right direction meets howls of criticism. Every policy threatened with repeal.
Seeing the devastation of our landscapes, are we finally willing to make the changes we must make?
Because we, not just the government, will need to invest in the future we want. I’ve worked in Councils. I’ve watched experts recommend sensible investments in climate action and resilience. I've watched politicians reduce them to ineffectiveness. Why? They believe Kiwis aren’t prepared to pay. They think tackling the biggest risks we face will get them voted out. So they do sticky plasters instead of surgery.
Well we’re certainly paying now. It’s the poorest who will suffer most. And we're putting many of our best - our first responders, our community volunteers into harm’s way.
Done right the investments we make now will also help redress the inequalities in our systems. That will help us hold firmer together. We can’t just ‘mend the roof while the sun is shining’. We have to work even as the clouds regather.
There’s an election coming. None of us can afford to check out.
If we don't want devastation, we have to vote for, and pay for, the risks to be addressed. We have to give politicians permission to take the difficult decisions. We have to make the investments our kids need to secure their futures now
This may be the most important election in our history. It may determine the course we will take into an uncertain future. At the moment New Zealand lacks proper leadership. We're not leading internationally. We’re not even a fast follower. Our businesses are suffering on the ground. They're lagging in global markets hungry for answers to these challenges. Our natural wonders are getting less and less wonderful. The clean green image that provides a premium to our products is covered in sludge.
We must rapidly move beyond fossil fuels wherever we can. We’re well placed to do so. Our country has abundant sources of renewable energy. But we need more investment in a grid that supports them and the required shift to electric vehicles.
We need for robust homes and resilient sources of power and water in our communities. Long supply chains break these days. We need regenerative farming for local markets. We need to reduce methane emissions. We all need to invest in roads, houses, and other infrastructure that works in harmony with nature. We must take action to enable nature to restore itself, in urban, rural and wild areas. We have to stop building and rebuilding in precarious areas. In some areas we must make a managed, just retreat. Our financial systems must adapt too. Polluters should pay, not be rewarded at everyone else’s cost.
To make all that possible we need leaders committed to action. What have we got? Labour and the Greens had to reduce their aspirations in order to get the cross party commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. They’ve committed to reducing emissions to 50% below 2005 level. Frustratingly we’re not seeing the action to match the targets.
Te Pāti Māori has a key inter-cultural role to play. Not sure about co-governance? Watch the cyclone footage again and ask yourself how our pākehā approach is going. Our management is not serving the landscapes, waterways and seas well, to put it mildly. I find it hard to believe we don’t have much to learn from those who've lived here the longest.
The National Party left the reins slack on all this for a decade in government. They now seem to be casting around for ideas. The ‘blue-green’ faction has yet to make much headway. Act wants to repeal the Zero Carbon Act. Its stated policy is that our climate targets should match the slowest of those we trade with.
Maybe they’ll all make new commitments now. If they do, we can’t let our grief cloud our judgement, or attention to detail. We’ve got to hold all parties much closer to their promises, and force them to make them a reality. We all have to step up now, at home, in our work places and at the ballot box. Or we will be mourning the loss of landscape and life for generations to come.
This article was first published by Stuff.