Greens support high profile Kiwis’ call for climate action

The Green Party fully supports a group of high profile Kiwi business people, lawyers, academics and commentators delivering a petition to parliament today calling for the Government to take the threat of climate change more seriously.

Wiseresponse, a group of over 100 high-profile New Zealanders, will hand the petition over at 1pm, calling for Parliament to carry out a cross-party assessment of the risks associated with energy and climate change, as well as four other key areas of concern.

The Green Party’s climate change spokesperson Dr Kennedy Graham will meet them.

“Wiseresponse has rightly identified climate change as a threat to New Zealand and our way of life. Any Government that does not take it seriously is failing to protect New Zealand,” said Dr Graham.

“The petition comes just days after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its report into the likely impacts of climate change in New Zealand.

“The IPCC report was a massive wake up call, and so it’s great that we have this prominent group of New Zealanders calling on the Government to take the scientists’ warnings seriously.

“Like all Kiwis, the Green Party loves our country and we want to protect it from the worst impacts of climate change.

“As Wiseresponse points out, we cannot keep allowing economic development to come at the expense of our environment, when it’s the environment that underpins the economy in the first place.

“Taking climate change seriously and moving to a smarter, greener and more resilient economy is a huge opportunity – I hope National, and indeed all Kiwis, listen to the voices of these well-respected New Zealanders as they call for action to protect the Kiwi way of life.”

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