Parents for Climate Aotearoa welcome the launch of the first, long overdue, Emissions Reduction Plan. National Coordinator for Parents for Climate Aotearoa, Alicia Hall says “This plan reads very much as a top down, business as usual approach to make our lives greener, but not improve them.’

“The plan is full of good intent, though needs much more detail on the how. Also how the government plans to gain the social licence needed to make transformational change. The lack of a strategy to engage, educate and empower the public is concerning.”

“We can learn from the Covid-19 response, how communities need to be resourced and empowered to make decisions for themselves. We need to hear from our people, our communities on what their needs are, what barriers are in place and a shared understanding of why we need to act swiftly. Not the usual voices we see pitted against each other in the media.”

“We applaud the commitment to transport mode shift, we need to see serious investment in our public transport infrastructure including making public transport more accessible and affordable. We need to see mode shift prioritised, the co-benefits to our health and wellbeing by having accessible, connected and protected cycle and walkways is immeasurable. Not only do we need subsidies for transitioning to electric vehicles, we need to have similar subsidies for switching to e-bikes.

Hall continues to say “we are a group made up of scientists, communicators, policy experts and more and we are parents first. Climate anxiety is rife amongst parents and youth - we are at the stage where we need to be implementing these strategies and not developing them. We all have a responsibility now to work together, just like we did in the 2020 lockdown, to make the best decisions now to improve not only our lives, but those of our children.”

© Scoop Media