NOW Will The Government Act Effectively On Climate Change?

Tuesday, 27 January 2026, 5:52 pm
Press Release: Extinction Rebellion NZ

Our deepest sympathies are with the whanau bereaved and those who have lost homes, livelihoods and community facilities in this latest climate enhanced storm. Our sympathies are also with the farmers of Southland who are reeling from the costs of the cleanup of the climate crisis enhanced storm last year. And the people of Westport, and the Tasman district. Those who are still being affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and the Anniversary Floods of 2023. FENZ reports that the fire season is starting soonr, lasting longer and fires are more intense thus harder to control.

Some of us have been expecting this. Others of us have had our heads in the sand. Especially the current coalition government.

Acknowledging the evidence, which has been before us for a couple of generations and doing nothing, amounts to collective suicide.

Some memories are short - like the declaration a mere six years ago of a “climate emergency” which followed the passing in 2019 of the Zero Carbon Act. That legislation made New Zealand one of the few countries to have a zero-emissions goal enshrined in law. And the Climate Emergency Fund allowing for the high probability of the expense of helping people and communities get re=established following the expected, ongoing severe emergencies.

Other memories are likely to be long-lived, as people are affected long-term by the increasing climate crisis enhanced weather events. Events that are etched in the minds of those whose lives are changed and those who shared vicariously, grateful to be only inconvenienced but alive and safe.

Or will these recent memories be overtaken by those of storms yet to come? Of worse disasters as warmer oceans cause air to soak up more moisture and atmospheric rivers drown whole towns and destroy food-producing plains?

The planetary warming and sea level rise that has already occurred is locked in for centuries. If the world could reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to near zero, deepening of these storms, droughts and fires could be lessened. To see a reversal to the kind of conditions we used to have requires technology that is not yet developed: to suck greenhouse gases out of the air and return to a liveable 350 parts per million greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The actions of the leaders of both major political parties make them complicit in this ghastly future. The framework was established six years ago for a re-prioritization of our political and economic goals. These must implement strategies to reduce our emissions. We have the technology to rapidly move to a post carbon society. All that is missing is political will. Which is why Extinction Rebellion and other activist groups such as 350, believe it is necessary for us the ordinary citizens to engage in disruptive nonviolent actions.

About Extinction Rebellion:

Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement.

We are facing an unprecedented global emergency. Life on Paptuanuku, Earth, is in crisis. We have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown, and we are in the midst of a mass extinction of our own making. The governments of the world have failed to protect us. As with many of the human rights we now take for granted these only came about with a concerted disruptive nonviolent campaign: heading towards honouring of Te Tiriti O Waitangi, Votes for Women, Land rights, Nuclear Free NZ, LGBTQ+ rights and marriage, disability rights and more. We are again called upon to compel Governments into action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse.

The governments are in the grip of vested interests of large corporations. Extinction Rebellion calls for a new stage of democracy: building on from and with the ten years of consultation by Māori as encapsulated in Matiki Mai Aotearoa working for constitutional change with binding Citizens Assemblies consistent with Te Tiriti O Waitangi.

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