A Climate Citizens’ Assembly may be needed to make real progress on the report of the Climate Change Commission, says the Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE) President Phil Saxby.

“The Commission aspires to ‘drive climate action in Aotearoa’ but this can only be done through public consent,” says Phil Saxby. “While there was cross-party support for the idea of a Climate Change Commission (which the UK has had since 2008), that does not necessarily translate into public support for effective climate action.”

The Climate Change Commissioner, Dr Rod Carr, will be presenting plans on 1 February 2021 for meeting, in stages, the Zero Carbon Act goals of Zero net carbon by 2050.

The goal of Zero Net Carbon by 2050 has international backing and New Zealand should set an example in the South Pacific region says ACE. “On our own, this country cannot change worldwide carbon emissions very much, but that is no reason to be complacent. Extreme weather events are becoming more common and the Commission is expected to recommend very major changes by 2050.”

“ACE fully supports the Commission’s work and has invited Dr Carr to speak at its April conference on the role of the Commission in engaging the public in the tough climate-change decisions we face”, says Phil Saxby.

“We are asking the Commission, and all the political parties in Parliament, to endorse the holding of a Climate Hui (Citizens Assembly) in this country, as has already been done in 2020 by the UK and France. The French Assembly# came up with 150 specific proposals for urgent climate action, and almost all of these have been accepted by the French government,” says ACE.

ACE will hold its second conference to promote a Climate Citizens Assembly at Rehua marae, Christchurch, on 19 April 2021. In addition to a presentation from Dr Carr, the conference will be briefed online by Lise Deshautel on the French Citizens Assembly for Climate. The conference will open with a panel of iwi representatives reporting on how iwi are dealing with climate action decisions.

Aotearoa Climate Emergency held its first conference in 2019 in Wellington and took part in a Climate Election Roadshow in association with Extinction Rebellion at the time of the 2020 General Election.

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