The text of the climate emergency motion the Prime Minister is putting forward today has been released.
She will move that the House declare a climate emergency - the motion includes a declaration to "avoid a more than 1.5 degree Celsius rise in global warming, global emissions would need to fall by around 45 per cent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero by 2050".
The motion would "recognise the advocacy of New Zealanders in calling for action to protect the environment and reduce the impact of human activity on the climate".
It would also recognise "the devastating impact that volatile and extreme weather will have on New Zealand and the wellbeing of New Zealanders, on our primary industries, water availability, and public health through flooding, sea level rise and wildfire damage".
The National Party leader says the Government is declaring the motion without any plan on what to do about climate change.
It notes that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time.
It also promises that the Government would take steps to reduce and eliminate waste and to show leadership by reducing Government's own emissions, and to be a carbon neutral Government by 2025.
Read the full motion on page 9 of this link.
It was revealed last week that Jacinda Ardern would move to declare a climate emergency.
"We’ve always considered climate change to be a huge threat to our region, and it is something we must take immediate action on," Ardern said at the time.
"Unfortunately we were unable to progress a motion around a climate emergency in Parliament in the last term, but now we’re able to.
"A statement around a climate emergency is just that, we’ve got to make sure we’re demonstrating in our actions that we’re continuing to make progress, we’ve got a lot we’re proud of but we know the work needs to continue."
National Party leader Judith Collins this morning called the Government's move to declare a climate emergency "somewhat virtue signalling", criticising a lack of plans to tackle the issue.
"If it's such an emergency why wasn't it done yesterday?" she said.
"We take climate change very seriously.
"Just declaring an emergency with no plan as to what to do is actually somewhat virtue signalling."
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