With only a few days’ notice given for submissions on this Bill, Tom Bennion, with support from a number of other members, prepared a written submission in record time.

You can read our submission here.

Local government is a critical area for climate action and keeping councils and council controlled organisations to task is important. For that reason, and alongside the Equal Justice Project, an Auckland based student organisation, LCANZI made a submission on the Auckland Council’s Emergency Budget on 18 June 2020.

The overall message of our submission was that climate change initiatives should not be delayed due to the financial impact of COVID-19. Our letter also set out our view that Auckland Council, like all other local authorities, has statutory responsibilities that require it to address climate change.

Transport is a significant contributor to New Zealand’s emissions. LCANZI wrote to the Board of Auckland Transport on 16 June calling for its Statement of Intent for 2020-2030 to include a commitment to pursue measures to reduce Auckland’s transport emissions consistent with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming to 1.5C. We also set out the reasons why we believe Auckland Transport has legal obligations to consider the climate change impacts and risks of its investment and policy decisions, and to ensure these are consistent with Auckland Council and the government’s climate change targets.

With New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 being applauded around the world, now is the time to show similar leadership in climate change policy and action says Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc (LCANZI).

LCANZI President, Jenny Cooper QC, is calling on the Government to announce its plans for introducing mandatory climate-related financial disclosure before the general election – endorsing the sentiment that “climate change remains the nuclear-free issue of our generation”.

LCANZI strongly supports the proposed introduction of the TCFD climate-related financial disclosure requirements in New Zealand as well as the introduction of a mandatory “comply-or-explain” disclosure regime based on the TCFD framework.

How green was the Budget? Billed as transformational it contains big dollops of cash for the environment, rail, ferries, housing and insulation. So you’d think that climate campaigners would be happy. Errr, nope. The Budget is a missed opportunity to reshape New Zealand to a low-emissions, high-margin economy and leaves us exposed to that other imminent threat, climate change. Listen to three experts unpack the good, the bad and tragically missing from this epic spending spree.

Rod Oram is a business journalist specialising in sustainable development, writing for Newsroom.

Amanda Larsson is the Climate and Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace NZ and an author of the Green New Deal, a plan to accelerate NZ’s progress to a low-emissions future.

Jenny Cooper QC is the president of Lawyers for Climate Action NZ.

Listen to the podcast here.

The 2020 Budget announcement suggests that the Government has been listening to the chorus of voices describing the current crisis as a unique opportunity to “build back better” and to “hit the reset button”, with both phrases appearing in the Minister’s speech. And indeed, the announcement showed welcome glimpses of a greener and more pleasant future, most notably with the commendable $1 billion green jobs package.

But despite the rhetoric, there was not much evidence that the reset button has actually been pushed yet, at least as far as climate is concerned. The Budget is missing any clear commitment to target spending towards the investments required to reduce our emissions by 2030 and keep global warming to 1.5 degrees.