Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Päremata www.pce.govt.nz
Media release

18 February 2007

Climate change calls for cross-party response

Cross-party consensus on how New Zealand should deal with climate change is essential, given the urgency for action and the need to maintain new policies for decades, says Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Morgan Williams.

Dr Williams says he was heartened by Prime Minister Helen Clark’s speech at the opening of Parliament on 13 February when she outlined the bold aim of making New Zealand “the first nation to be truly sustainable”.

Statements from other parties have also been encouraging, he says. New Zealand is well placed to address the challenges and the time is right to do so.

“Climate change is the ultimate indicator of unsustainable production systems and lifestyles worldwide. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change reinforced just how serious the issue is, and that humanity is responsible for most of the measured change.”

The report is a conservative assessment of what lies ahead and the situation may well be worse than it indicated, he added.

“Research emerging since the report was finalised last year points to even bigger changes. Victoria University’s Professor Peter Barrett recently presented data showing that much more rapid rises in sea levels are likely: a point emphasised by other research in the latest New Scientist. (10 February 2007)

“New Zealanders are looking for leadership, and they rightfully expect there should be a strategy, agreed to by all parties, by which we can navigate the years ahead.”

Many of these issues will be discussed at a PCE-hosted forum in Wellington on 1-2 March. The PCE20 Forum “Advancing Environmental Sustainability” will feature 10 international experts on sustainability and over 50 high profile New Zealanders from politics, business, central and local government, science, academia, and NGOs.

The forum will use the occasion of the PCE’s 20th anniversary to look at New Zealand’s sustainability progress in the past 20 years, and what lies ahead in the next 20.

Ends

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