New Zealand climate Change state of Emergency

 As climate change begins to take a toll in some parts of the world many countries are beginning to declare climate change as a state of emergency. One of those countries is New Zealand, as it begins to see rising sea levels, flooding, water shortages as well as wildfires ravage across the land at an unprecedented rate. The extreme weather patterns have also caused a significant decline in New Zealand species as well as the indigenous biodiversity. The call for a climate change state of emergency is not only an answer to the current residents but for future generations that will be burden if no immediate actions are taken. 

The government plans to take action and be at the forefront of fighting climate change by making several changes to help the countries reduce carbon emissions and minimize degradation of land. Although New Zealand’s contribution to the global emissions is only 0.17% which may seem small, for its size it’s higher than most. This makes it the 17th country out of the 32 in the OECD with a net emission that has rose in the past two decades by 60%. Their future plans are to require the use of only electric or hybrid vehicles to help reduce the automobile fleet by 20%. Next, they plan to eliminate the use of cold fired boilers in buildings across all public sectors. New Zealand is determined to show that they improve the economy with such actions and have even wagered reducing the government’s own emissions. They are determined to become a carbon-neutral government by the year 2025. 

Although this all sounds like a step in the right direction, they must have evidence in hand that that supports that their actions will have positive effects on climate change. This is so the residents of New Zealand will believe in the movement and have adequate resources to participate and help contribute to the cause. A proposal needs to be made to help identify how New Zealand’s can benefit by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and ways that it can help both the residents and the environment. It has to show what the socio-economic options are to help with this reduction. This plan needs to provide information about the innovative technology being used, the policies in place to accomplish such a goal and sufficient ways of changing behavior to consider the different factors. This proposal can help identify ways moving forward without altering productivity and growth. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/02/new-zealand-declares-a-climate-change-emergency