Climate strikers walked out of school on Friday to hit the streets calling on politicians to take action on climate change.
The first climate strike of 2023 is in the shadow of the extreme weather events hitting the country, rolling through, causing disruption and even taking lives.
This School Strike 4 Climate has five demands:
Lower the voting age to 16
The climate strikers want the voting aged lowered as their “future is being trashed by politicians and adults who will not be here to deal with the worst effects”.
They say that young people will spend the longest time dealing with the breakdown of the climate and while it’s threatening their futures – they deserve a say.
In 2022, the Supreme Court decided the current voting age was unjustified discrimination, on the basis of age, under the Bill of Rights Act. In light of the judgment, former prime minister Jacinda Ardern said Government would introduce a proposal to Parliament to lower the voting age to 16.
Asked on Friday about the progress, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said further clarity was coming “on the government’s intentions on that in the next little while”.
No new exploration or mining of new fossil fuel resources
In 2018, the Government banned offshore oil and gas exploration and continued to offer onshore permits. Meanwhile, the Government is working through and consulting on a possible move to place more restrictions on new mining on conservation land. Ardern promised to ban mining on conservation land during her first speech from the throne.
The climate strikers say politicians keen on expanding fossil fuel infrastructure “are on the wrong side of history”.
Stuff
The climate strikers are calling for action, saying inaction is threatening their future.
30% marine protection by 2025
In 2019, 0.4% of New Zealand’s mainland territorial sea had marine reserves. New Zealand had 44 marine reserves.
The climate strikers said the ocean “is a massive carbon sink that will help tackle the climate crisis”.
Support regenerative farming
The climate strikers want farmers to cut out “synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, pesticides and poisons” and see investment in sustainable agriculture.
About 90% of the synthetic nitrate fertilisers used in New Zealand, which are added to soil to boost plant growth, are used by livestock farming nationwide. The Government capped synthetic nitrogen fertiliser use for farms over 20 hectares at 190kg per hectare per year in 2021.
ROBERT KITCHIN/STUFF
Co-founder of School Strikes NZ Sophie Hansford, and Climate Change minister James Shaw talk about the protest action for later today.
Ebike rebates for low income households
They want rebates “to encourage people to get out on their bikes and incentivise active modes of transport, not just EVs and replacing cars with more cars”, Sophie Handford, a founder the New Zealand School Strike 4 Climate said.
Transport Minister Michael Wood said on Friday morning the roll-out of the the Clean Car Upgrade scheme, (announced in 2022 with little detail released since) would enable some to swap a car for an EV, hybrid or e-bike, was still being worked through.
“We’ll have more information about the trial in the coming weeks.”
He said there were other initiatives to encourage e-bike uptake such as providing e-bikes to low income families in Wainuiomata.
