Climate campaigners to council - tourists better to fly than cruise.

Tomorrow morning (20th March), between 9 and 10 am, Supporters of Climate Liberation Aotearoa will address Christchurch City Council urging them to add cruise ship emissions to the Christchurch emissions targets so that they are included in the emissions reduction plan.

“The cruise ship industry really doesn't benefit our city, at all, and I’ll explain why. And everything that I say, will be backed up by evidence, good statistics or peer reviewed academic papers, which I’ll share the references for.” Said spokesperson Michal Apathy.

“Economically, we’d be far better off without the cruise industry, with those tourists flying here instead, they’d spend three times more. The cruise industry is costing us, not helping us.”

According to Dr Inga Smith, who calculated that a cruise ship holiday to New Zealand emits four times the greenhouse gas emissions than an equivalent holiday flying and staying in hotels: “From a climate change perspective, going on a cruise ship is one of the worst holidays that you can take.”

We are calling on the national government, and local governments to include emissions from international shipping and aviation into their emissions targets and emissions reduction plans. We are calling for the Climate Change Commission to recommend that the government do so in their advice due this year. We also want cruise ship subsidies to end, and for cruise ships to be banned from sensitive areas like Fiordland.

“It’s really simple. We should stop subsidising this pollution with ratepayer’s money. ChristchurchNZ takes ratepayer money to sponsor the yearly New Zealand Cruise Association conference. ChristchurchNZ also spends money on promotion and promotional material for the cruise industry, and spends money on whatever paid staff time and resources are required to train and administer the volunteer cruise ambassador program.” Said Michael.

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