Greenpeace blows hot air on govt's new climate change strategy

“A kick in the guts for communities,” is how a Greenpeace advocate described the coalition government’s climate change announcement this week.

Greenpeace spokesperson Sinead Deighton O’Flynn told William Terite on 531pi’s Pacific Mornings that many people in New Zealand are still dealing with the fallout from recent extreme weather events.

“This announcement demonstrates their further reliance on unproven, unreliable technologies that in many cases do not even exist yet.”

Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ five-point climate strategy aims to reduce the impacts and prepare for future effects.

Watts, who travelled to Tuvalu and Vanuatu in May, said, “Our government has committed to meeting our climate change targets - reducing net emissions is one of the nine government targets to achieve better results from the public service.”

Watch Greenpeace spokesperson Sinead Deighton O’Flynn's interview below.

The five points include better infrastructure for communities, more affordable clean energy and world-leading climate innovation.

The three-page strategy did not reveal any public policy details but mentioned that it would be released in the next two weeks.

O’Flynn said the announcement demonstrated the government’s lack of intention to take any meaningful action on climate change.

“Right now we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drastically reduce global temperatures by taking action on methane emissions.

“New Zealand likes to say that we are committed to good climate action, to being good Pacific neighbours and this government refuses to act on the biggest climate polluters.”

Labour Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni also slammed the government’s climate change plan, describing it as “three pages of nothing”.

Budget 2023 saw $3.6 billion on environmental protections and resource management. But this year's financial management plan saw cuts to the Climate Change Commission, the redirection of $2.4b from climate spending into other spending.

Sepuloni also told Terite, “They’re taking us backwards. A whole lot of what they’re doing is just repealing what we put in place when we had our six-year government.

“They’re doing things that actually make no sense, like focusing on rolling out this chagrin network across the country for electric cars, yet they took away the incentive for people to buy electric cars.

“We’ve seen a massive decline in the number of Kiwis actually taking up the opportunity to have an electric car. It’s so nonsensical.”

Watch Labour Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni's full interview below.