We cannot give up on the communities who have already been severely impacted by climate change, or the communities who will be impacted by it in the years to come
Opinion: Several days ago I awoke to Sydney covered in a thick blanket of smoke caused by hazard burns being carried out across the State, as Australia braces for a hot summer of bushfires.
It was an eerie forewarning of what’s to come, with air quality flagged as very poor across most of the city and residents urged to stay indoors and close windows and doors. Days later, a heatwave arrived sending temperatures into the 30s and sending 26 to hospital in the annual Sydney Marathon.
On Friday, residents across Southland awoke to a state of emergency as torrential rain caused widespread flooding, slips, and debris strewn across the region. The hundreds of millimetres of rain that fell in a matter of hours forced more than 100 people to evacuate their homes. Heavy rain warnings are in place for other parts of the country as I write this.
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In Libya, extreme weather caused flooding that overwhelmed two dams, causing over 10,000 people to lose their lives and thousands more were displaced. Wildfires in Italy, Greece, and Southern Europe as well as Canada during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer caused further deaths, displacement, and crisis. And it was only seven months ago when Aotearoa felt the full force of extreme weather with flooding in Tāmaki Makaurau and Cyclone Gabrielle that killed 11 people, displaced over 10,000, and impacted millions.
It is becoming impossible to ignore that we are in the grips of a climate catastrophe.
After the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle I said this year’s election would be a climate election. I stand by it. While the cost of living and the economy more broadly remain top of mind for voters this year, climate-driven severe weather events have caused irreversible shifts in Aotearoa’s political landscape.
This election, for the first time, there are a large group of voters who have been severely impacted by climate change and the increased ferociousness of severe weather events it has caused. It’s an issue no longer happening to ‘someone else’ but something that has tangibly affected the lives of tens of thousands of New Zealanders.
With every election to come, that group of voters will become larger and more powerful – as more and more New Zealanders (and indeed those all around the world) are adversely affected by the worsening impacts of climate change. Those voters will be looking to credibility and consistency on the climate crisis, holding Governments to account on their records of both mitigation and adaptation.
Similarly for the first time, a Government is seeking re-election after having had to grapple with the first set of decisions following a climate-related natural disaster, the costliest cyclone-related disaster ever in the Southern Hemisphere. Far-reaching, precedent-setting decisions around climate adaptation that have ramifications in their billions of dollars were made in the months that followed and has had a demonstrable impact on climate policies ahead of the election.
Labour’s announcement yesterday of its Climate Manifesto had its experiences this year written all over it with Chris Hipkins positioning the policy announcement as more than a moral announcement, calling it an “economic and government credibility issue.”
Taking into account that most of the policies in the package had been announced or were part of the Government’s work programme – and that Hipkins had placed a range of climate initiatives on the policy bonfire throughout the year, it’s a strategic re-packaging to stem the flow of voters away from Labour to the Greens and a new angle to attack National. The timing of which couldn’t be more perfect as last night’s Newshub-Reid Research poll saw the Greens soar to 14.2 percent and Labour fall further to 26.5 percent.
The Greens however have sharpened their messaging, delivering an extraordinarily effective campaign that hasn’t allowed Hipkins any room to claw back voters. By strategically going earlier on policy announcements, they’ve been outgunning Labour, ensuring announcements such as free dental for under-30’s and a climate manifesto look undercooked and lacking in vision.
So perhaps more importantly, in the bland battle of the Chrises it gives Hipkins the opportunity to go after National on its climate policies – or lack thereof. National’s plan to remove financial incentives for EVs and put a few more chargers in, as well as getting on board with renewable energy that’s already at over 90 percent, can hardly be described as climate policy.
National have more climate policies they’re promising to reverse than they have policies they’ve proposed – and that’s before you add in the Act Party who seem to be embracing climate denialism with a policy promise to repeal the Zero Carbon Act. That's positioning that isn’t just reckless, but disrespectful to the people of Tāmaki Makaurau and Hawkes Bay.
This election is a climate election, ultimately because as a society we can’t afford for it not to be. The choice for voters this election is one that will fundamentally impact the future of this planet, whether we meet our Paris targets and continue on a track of decarbonisation, or whether we give up and contribute to global temperature increases going over an irreversible cliff.
As adaptation and managed retreat become more important, we cannot give up on climate change mitigation – these are the most critical years we have in making lasting change that will keep global temperatures at survivable levels. We cannot give up on the communities who have already been severely impacted by climate change, or the communities who will be impacted by it in the years to come.
We must demand more of our political leaders ahead of this critical election, before it’s too late.
