Moana Mackey
Climate Change Spokesperson
Environment Spokesperson

9 April 2014

Wise heads want wise response

Labour accepts the challenge laid down by the Wise Response group to protect and future-proof New Zealand’s environment and economy.

A petition calling for urgent action was presented to Labour’s Environment and Climate Change spokesperson Moana Mackey at Parliament this afternoon.

“Wise Response is a group of high profile Kiwi business leaders, commentators, lawyers, scientists and other academics, all of whom are calling for the Government to take the impacts of environmental degradation and climate change on our environment, our economy and our way of life seriously,” Moana Mackey said.

“Without a healthy environment we cannot have a healthy economy. Far from being in competition with each other it is critical that economic development and environmental protection go hand in hand.

“No generation has the right to rob from future generations by depleting and destroying the environmental wealth that our economy is based on.

“Climate change is not going away, and fossil fuels are only going to increase in price. The Government should be future-proofing the New Zealand economy by moving away from our heavy reliance on greenhouse gas polluting fossil fuels, not locking us in to even further reliance.

“Instead it is happy to sit on its hands and burden future generations with the cost of its inaction.

“By developing a proper risk assessment framework we will be able to quantify the expected impacts of current policy settings, the cost of doing so, and the actions needed to address these impacts.

“Choosing to continue bury our heads in the sand - as the current Government is doing - is not an option.”

ENDS

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