Petrol prices haven’t been this high since the 1980s, highlighting the need to free ourselves from fossil fuel reliance, Green Party Co-Leader James Shaw said today.  

A special report on global warming, released today, has laid out a strong case for countries to make every effort to limit temperature rise to 1.5o Celsius above pre-industrial levels, says the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw. “The special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that a host of climate-related risks; from sea level rise, to food and water supplies, security, and health issues will be worse if global temperatures rise to 2o rather than 1.5o....

Analysis of the more than 15,000 submissions made about the Zero Carbon Bill provide a critical insight into New Zealanders’ thinking on our country’s path to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, says the Minister for Climate Change. The Ministry for the Environment has today released a summary of submissions made during consultation on the proposed Zero Carbon Bill and a full report of the submissions is available at: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/node/24411 “I firstly want to thank all those people who made submissions on...

The Prime Minister’s former Chief Science Advisor has provided a valuable contribution to the discussion on how to handle agricultural greenhouse gas emissions with the release of his report on this issue, says James Shaw, Minister for Climate Change. “As Sir Peter Gluckman states in his report on mitigating agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, New Zealand is well-placed to lead the word in dealing with these global warming pollutants,” says James. “Sir Peter’s report sits alongside the recent publications released by...

James Shaw, Green Party co-leader and the Minister of Statistics, today launched the development of a new comprehensive set of environmental, social and economic indicators to better measure New Zealand’s overall wellbeing and success. “This Government is expanding beyond traditional narrow measures of economic success to reflect the wellbeing of New Zealanders, including the environmental wellbeing that sustains us,” James said. “As part of the Green Party’s Confidence and Supply Agreement with Labour, we are beginning the process of compiling a...

Green Party co-leader and Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw, says he will be reinforcing that urgency and ambition are needed regarding action on climate change as a Pacific conference gets underway tomorrow in Fiji. James is attending the second Climate Action Pacific Partnership conference (CAPPII), over the next three days in Suva. The CAPP was established in July 2017, as part of Fiji’s Presidency of the twenty third UN climate change conference of the parties (COP23). The CAPP is focused on accelerating...

The Green Party is today fulfilling the commitment to proactively release its Ministers’ and Under-Secretary’s diaries as an important part of the party’s transparency policy. “We have always strived to make politics honest, transparent, open and accessible for everyone. Now we’re part of Government, we’re opening up our Ministers’ diaries,” said Green Party Co-leader and Minister James Shaw. “The influence of lobbying and unequal access to politicians is unhealthy in New Zealand politics.” “We want the public to have more...

The Government’s plan to introduce a new Zero Carbon Bill has brought thousands of people together to discuss how we address climate change. More than 14,000 submissions were received during the six week consultation, which closed today. “I have been impressed by the number of businesses and farming leaders who have stood up to share their commitment to leading the change,” says the Minister for Climate Change. “I believe there will be many benefits that come from us taking advantage...

The Minister for Climate Change strongly welcomes the commitment by the new Climate Leaders Coalition of 60 businesses to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions and leading the way to the low-carbon economy. “These 60 companies - from Z Energy, to Spark, Vodafone, Air New Zealand, Contact Energy, Meridian, Ngai Tahu Holdings and Ravensdown - make up nearly half of our country’s total greenhouse gas emissions when you include their supply chains. “So to have them formally join the challenge to...

Minister for Climate Change James Shaw has welcomed the ‘Declaration for Ambition’ on climate change, signed by the High Ambition Coalition group of countries. The Coalition is a group of countries, including New Zealand, who are committed to ambitious action to combat climate change. “As the world works towards the next United Nations climate change conference in Poland later this year, it’s important to join with other countries to push for effective climate action and implementation of the Paris Agreement. “Taking...