Issue 00
How some things change and some should but don’t.
If you’d asked me 2 years ago, when CM launched, I’d have sworn we’d never issue such a clear party endorsement as in CM49 (and I’m not a member of any party).
Why the change?!
Due to the staggering intransigence of most parties to advance their climate thinking; the relentless escalation of the climate crisis; and the global failure to come close to meeting necessary targets.
As always, email with ideas,
Party policies make it easy for climate-savvy voters.
It defies belief how few parties have robust climate policies, and how many have climate harmful ones (see Ora Taiao scorecard). However, that makes voting unbelievably simple for the many of us striving for a worthwhile future for our children and our children’s children: a strong Green voice in a Labour-led Government is the only prudent choice.
A golden goose lays a wonderful chance to line up NZ’s climate ducks!
This election gifts us the easiest chance on the planet to get our climate ducks in a row!
• Duck 1: An election at a crucial convergence of Covid-19 and the climate crisis
• Duck 2: A robust community less-pummelled by Covid than most of the world.
• Duck 3: A stellar incumbent Prime Minister in need of climate redemption.
• Duck 4: A capable and willing Green Party partner with comprehensive credentials.
• Duck 5: An opposition retreating rapidly into the dim and damaging past.
And how the world needs us to step up, lead and be a role model! As we have been on the ZCA, oil exploration, climate risk reporting, wellbeing. “If not us, who? If not now, when?”
“Policymakers need to understand what will happen, and what it will cost, if we ignore these issues”
Analysis after analysis reaches the same conclusion
There is no shortage of informed analysis of party climate policy, and they point in a common direction: the Greens stand out on top; a few have half-plausible climate policies; and an alarming number of parties are trying to steer us back to an obsolete and damaging past. Check out orataiao_scorecard or Rod Oram or Forest and Bird Youth or Resilienz .
The numbers add up to party vote Green.
The greatest difference one party vote can make is lifting a party past one of two thresholds: a marginal party up past the 5% threshold (winning 6 seats, or 5% of 120); or any party with sure seats, up to the level for one more seat. Party vote Labour might achieve one extra seat. Party vote Green could do the same, but if the Greens are right on 5%, one vote could lift them over the threshold and ensure 6 seats. parliament-mmp
“The financial case for climate solutions is crystal clear!”
We must “go early and go hard” on climate. Policy failure is rampant.
As “Rising sea levels force relocation of Indonesian capital” (Globalcitizen), NZ’s Mark Daalder reports “climate policy is almost entirely absent from the [Covid recovery] conversation.”(Newsroom), while 25 th Sept Guardian Weekly headlines “Great Britain’s failure to invest in a green recovery is baffling – and negligent”. And the UN reports (here) that not one 10-year biodiversity protection target has been met, and highlights “Links between ‘unprecedented biodiversity loss’ and spread of disease”.
