Environment

New Zealand to declare a climate emergency next week

Sydney, Australia, Nov 26 (efe-epa).- New Zealand will declare a climate emergency next week to promote decarbonization and face the effects of the climate crisis, the country’s climate change minister announced Thursday.

“We are in the midst of a climate crisis that will impact all aspects of our lives and the type of planet our children will inherit,” James Shaw said in a Thursday statement.

The minister said the declaration will be accompanied by concrete actions and will make the fight against climate change a priority for the government, which already approved an ambitious plan to reduce polluting emissions in New Zealand in the last legislature.

According to local media, the announcement will be made by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, from the Labor Party, Wednesday in parliament, where she hold an absolute majority after her victory in the elections on Oct. 17.

Ardern, one of the world leaders who advocates the adoption of strong measures to protect the planet from the impact of greenhouse gases and promote the decarbonization of the economy, stressed that “immediate action must be taken” against climate change.

“Unfortunately we could not advance a motion on a climate emergency in parliament in the last legislature, but now we can,” Ardern said Thursday in remarks to reporters after a legislative session in Wellington.

The New Zealand president was referring to her previous government in which her Labor Party was forced to form a coalition with the Green Party and the conservative New Zealand First, with differing views on climate change.

Despite this, Ardern’s government succeeded in getting the New Zealand Parliament to pass a “Zero Carbon” emission law in November 2019 to combat the climate crisis, in compliance with the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gases.

The law tries to keep the emission of gases below 1.5 degrees, as stipulated in the Paris Agreement, and represents an important step in the fight against the climate emergency in which the planet is mired, although it excludes agriculture.

This law aims to reduce biological methane emissions from agriculture by 10 percent by 2030 and provides for a provisional reduction in a range of 24 to 47 percent by 2050.

Ardern – who was congratulated last week by United States President-elect Joe Biden for her leadership, especially in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic – is confident she will be able to work with the Democratic president on a broad agenda that address the health and climate.

Spain, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Ireland, South Korea and Japan, among other countries, as well as the European Union and other cities and regions, have declared a climate emergency since 2019.

Countries such as the United Kingdom seek to implement plans to boost electric vehicles and renewable energy to relaunch their economies after the pandemic, while 126 governments, including Japan, China and South Korea, have committed to reaching zero emissions in the coming decades. . EFE-EPA

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