NewsroomPlus.com – With the United Nations Climate Change Conference coming up in three weeks, New Zealanders are jumping on board to back the conference’s aspirations to lower global greenhouse gas emissions.
Education and Advocacy Manager at Tearfund NZ, Murray Sheard, acknowledged global progress, but pushed for further improvement:
“In the last 20 years, we have lifted more people out of poverty than ever before. But the better we’ve got at development, the worse we’ve got at sustainability. Not only could climate change undo all our progress, it will force people from their homes, including our closest neighbours in the Pacific.”
With this relevant to the recent rejection of climate change refugee Ioane Teitiota, New Zealand has a lot to answer for in addressing the needs of the environment. Not only will the conference call leaders to take smart, sustainable action, but initiatives such as the ‘green fleet’ tour in Auckland shows that New Zealanders are ready to make the necessary changes.
Wayne Walker – Auckland councillor and Chair of the council’s Environment, Climate Change and Natural Heritage Committee – attended the event, and got on his bike to join the demonstration. “It’s great to see so many of the local community get behind this important grass-roots initiative, especially all the families that have come by to show their support; they are sending a clear message that they want a clean energy future for our kids.”
This is one of a series of nationwide community initiated demonstrations to promote action preventing global warming.
About the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference
- The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Paris from 30th November to 11th December.
- The governments of more than 190 nations will gather to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels – the threshold beyond which scientists estimate global warming will become catastrophic and irreversible.
- The objective is to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.
- For more information, see the following summary article: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/02/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-paris-climate-summit-and-un-talks