Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill

Interventions
13 July 2019

To: Committee Secretariat

Environment Committee
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
By email: zerocarbon@parliament.govt.nz

Tēnā koe,

INTRODUCTION

1. Please find below my interventions to the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon)
Amendment Bill (the Bill).

APPEARING BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE

2. I wish to make oral interventions before the committee, preferably in Whangārei.

INTERVENTIONS – GENERAL SUPPORT

Support for other aligned interventions

3. I wish to acknowledge and generally support in particular the interventions by:

3.1. Generation Zero;

3.2. School Strike 4 Climate (SS4C);1

3.3. Whangārei District Council;

3.4. Jeanette Fitzsimons CNZM;

3.5. Greenpeace; and

3.6. Forest and Bird.

Support for key thematic messages

4. I wish to tautoko especially the following key thematic messages (and associated
recommendations) communicated throughout those interventions referencing:

4.1. The Bill in its current state will fail to limit global warming to 1.5ºC:

a. If politicians fail to optimise the Bill, as called for by the above-listed interventions
and others – the Bill will be as ineffective as the failed Paris Agreement in terms
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 of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions, and beyond to much-needed net
greenhouse gas sequestration;

4.2. The fact that the Bill is currently unenforceable, but must be made so.2 As
Greenpeace points out, the Bill “has specifically written out any mechanism that
would hold any person or body to account for not adhering to it”.3 Clause 5ZJ “Effect
of failure to meet 2050 target and emissions budgets” effectively says that none of
the Bill is legally enforceable (but for a declaration of the courts).

a. This means citizens have little if no meaningful way to keep the Government
accountable, including all Government Agencies who must be enabled (or
forced) to work synergistically together for everyone’s highest climate good.

i. Note that ‘non-enforceability’ was another major failing of the Paris

Agreement. So, our Government has the road markers to avoid the Paris
Agreement’s mistakes: why are our elected officials following the same path
to bureaucratic impotency?;

b. Section 5ZJ must be removed to allow the court to take other steps to remedy
ineffective decision-making and policy implementation.

4.3. The existential predicament that the climate emergency imposes on Life on our
home planet – including humanity as a species, and therefore:

a. The need for our central and local Governments to declare a climate
emergency - see also my speaking notes attached calling (on behalf of
Extinction Rebellion Whangārei) on Whangārei District Council to declare a
climate emergency;

4.4. The imperative for methane targets to be aligned, and equally ambitious as, New
Zealand’s carbon targets – i.e. observing the precautionary principle, the strictest
reduction targets should be imposed on all greenhouse gas producers (regardless of
whether they’re carbon, methane or other producers). Humanity has zero wiggle
room at this point, given the compelling evidence that our planet is on a certain
trajectory to climate catastrophe unless we pull out all the stops to reduce all
greenhouse emissions as soon as possible;

4.5. Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions with all due haste, requiring a time-
frame that must be brought significantly forward from 2050 to at least 2030 if not
sooner, as this is humanity’s one and only shot at avoiding a worst case scenario of
the annihilation of human civilisation as we know it;

4.6. The Climate Commission:

a. Which must report to Parliament, not the Minister; and

b. Which must be equitable in terms of membership representing those (i) most

affected and/ or (ii) who are disproportionately more vulnerable to climate crisis
effects (e.g. youth, women, elderly, the disabled), and of course (iii) tangata
whenua who by virtue of te Tiriti o Waitangi deserve a meaningful seat at that
table;

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4.7. Support for significant focus on forestry-based climate responses, while expanding
our attention and investment to more innovative sequestration solutions - including
other nature-based ‘technologies’ (much of the understanding about which can be
obtained by engaging in good faith with traditional community and indigenous
knowledge experts and practitioners);

4.8. The need to include meaningful international aviation and shipping emissions
reduction provisions;

4.9. The need for unprecedented ‘whole of society’ mobilisation – whether public,
private, political, corporate or other – which is required to do justice to the nature and
gravity of the climate threat (the nearest comparable experience for which is
Aotearoa’s World War 1 and World War 2 efforts). Development and implementation
of a national plan of climate crisis mitigation and adaptation action must be fully
resourced as this nation’s top priority;

4.10. The need to actively ensure justice, fairness and human rights protection moving
forward in the climate emergency response design and implementation phase –
particularly with regard to the rights of the most vulnerable such as:

a. Children and youth;

b. Women;
c. The elderly;
d. The disabled;
e. Indigenous peoples - especially tangata whenua as concerns Te Tiriti o Waitangi
implementation, our Pacific whānau, brothers and sisters, and realisation of the
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and
f. Minorities.
g. human rights Finite planet Earth;

FURTHER INTERVENTIONS

5. In addition to, and to clarify, my abovementioned support for aligned interventions, I

state as follows:

Language

6. Climate crisis is the biggest threat humanity’s ever faced, and likely ever will (short of
a full-blown nuclear world war or malevolent Alien attack!). Yet the Bill’s language
only talks of climate “change”. This a dangerously misleading term, because it masks
the urgency of our time, and contributes to the complacency and ignorance of our
population about just how dire our situation is.

6.1. Recommendation: That all references to climate “change” be replaced with a term
that more accurately reflects the situation, for example, climate “emergency”.

Extinction Rebellion Demands

7. Recommendation: That the Government implements Extinction Rebellion’s

demands to Governments world-wide, including that Governments must:
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 a. Tell the truth, including by declaring a climate and ecological emergency;

b. Achieve net zero greenhouse emissions by 2025; and

c. Create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and

ecological justice:

i. This move is linked to a critical decline in citizens’ faith and trust in State
institutions (recent expert commentary on the failure of the so-called
‘wellbeing budget’ to sufficiently address ecological degradation and the
mental health crisis4 is just another example of institutional failure). For if
our institutions could be trusted to provide for the People’s welfare and best
interests, humanity wouldn’t be this existential climate emergency, there
would be equitable wealth and power distribution, and so on.

Economic transformation

New monetary theory, and Sovereign money

“I think it's just a sort of Labour insecurity that they have to prove their
responsibility [with the Budget Responsibility Rules], whereas I think there's other
ways to prove one's responsibility.”
- Rod Oram, 31 May 2019.5

“[T]o lock oneself into a fiscal responsibility Act which has its origins in the
neoliberal era […] suggests a case of massive amnesia […] about what social
democracy is all about and what it used to be about when the first Labour
government came here in 1935”.
- Prof. Wayne Hope, 31 May 2019.6

“[To say] we're gonna have well-being but we're going to be fiscally responsible.
Well actually, it doesn't quite work that simply.”
- Prof. Jane Kelsey, 31 May 2019.7

“[…]at a time when we’re facing incredible economic, social and ecological crises.
This is a time when we need to spend money[…] when we need to deal with what’s
coming at us with the climate crisis and associated impacts. It is an emergency, as
young people keep telling us.”
- Sue Bradford, 31 May 2019.8

“It’s not much point putting things away for a rainy day when people are already
drowning”.
- Dr Ganesh Nana, 31 May 2019.9

8. Recommendation: The Government must be honest: fiscal austerity is not in the

interests of New Zealanders’ wellbeing. Sacrificing climate mitigation and adaptation
funds just so we can pay down government debt makes no sense in this climate

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 emergency scenario which will end humanity unless we immediately divert all
available resources towards effective climate response.

8.1. What Government will be prioritising debt recovery anyway in 5, 10 or 20 years (if
indeed a functioning society lasts that long)? Every nation state will have more
important things to worry about, like the critical devastation of transport, housing,
food, water and ecological life-support systems quickly followed by nations’ (and
ultimately global) economic collapse.

8.2. New Zealand’s Government needs to accept that conventional fiscal and economic
models are a key factor that caused our climate crisis; that drove inequitable
distribution of wealth and power between classes of people, between people and the
industrial extractive corporate sector, and which has seen the decimation of our
natural habitats.

8.3. Holding back the money supply for climate mitigation and adaptation investment will
lead to real, tangible suffering for ordinary citizens (from entire communities to
business and industry – especially our farmers and others who must be fully
supported to transition to regenerative practices and/or work) and ultimately the
whole of Aotearoan society (as it is already doing for countless nations and
populations already around the world). Moreover it will have profound harmful
implications for so many of our Pacific brother and sister climate crisis refugees who
New Zealand will have to turn away because of a false excuse that we can’t afford to
welcome them into the safety of our country.

8.4. The Government must recognize that the current monetary model is broken, it’s not
working to alleviate suffering of the people. In extreme times past, like in World War
1 and World War 2 eras, and in times of economic depression, governments found
ways to create the money (e.g. by taxing the super-rich and re-distributing wealth
fairly in society10, or by creating “sovereign” or “positive” money11 (something which
has been proposed before,12 but for whatever reason the Government so far rejects
the idea). The Government has the power to create the multiple billions of dollars’
worth of funds (money simply being a fiction, an illusion based merely on a social
contract, that’s it. Therefore, money creation is easy – just ask the banks and
financial institutions that invent it out of thin air!).

8.5. Recommendation: The Government needs to fundamentally transform how money

is created,13 and how wealth in society is equitably distributed, so that everyone can
help mitigate and adapt to the climate emergency. The Government must use its
sovereign money creating power now as a matter of urgency to invest in all the
necessary climate mitigation and adaptation action and resilience-building.

a. Indeed, failing to do so is irrational and insane: there is no other way to generate

the value required in such a compressed time-frame, the window of opportunity is
closing faster by the day, so we literally have no time to waste.

Gross Domestic Product

8.6. Similarly with Gross Domestic Product – the primary measure of our country’s
progress. The GDP measure puts economic priorities first, and social, cultural and
environmental values second; it is based on the idea that infinite growth on a finite

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 planet is desirable and necessary (when in truth, infinite growth on a finite planet
violates the laws of physics and is unsustainable). Rather:

8.7. Recommendation: The measure of our nation’s environmental, socio-economic and

other wellbeing should be based on more regenerative values and models such as
those advocated and practiced by traditional communities and indigenous peoples,
and re-framed in more recent times as the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals,14 ‘Doughnut economics’ (Kate Raworth),15 and other similar ideas.

The Climate Commission

9. Many have observed over the generations the tokenistic establishment of expert
bodies, in so far as politicians have chosen to cherry pick, if not completely ignore,
their findings and recommendations. An obvious example is the Waitangi
Tribunal, and recently the welfare and tax working groups.16

9.1. Recommendation: If the Climate Commission’s advice – and therefore the climate
emergency itself - is to be taken seriously, there must be an enforceable
presumption that the findings and recommendations will be implemented unless and
until politicians can provide compelling justifications why the same should not be
implemented.

a. The above recommendation assumes that the Commission is constructed

equitably, and a properly-supported citizens’ assembly is established to ensure
institutional accountability.

The Emissions Trading Scheme

10. The ETS17 is a capitalistic market mechanism that is still regarded as a major tool to
reduce carbon emissions, even though it’s failed globally18 to reduce carbon
emissions and is philosophically and morally bankrupt (because it legalises ongoing
greenhouse emissions production, environmental pollution and ecological
destruction).

10.1. Recommendation: New Zealand must ditch the failed ETS for an effective
mechanism like, for example taxing pollution directly.

Constitutional transformation
11. Many believe that if only New Zealanders were clearer about what our shared values
are as a country, we might be more united in what we ought to do to create equity,
justice, peace and harmony in Aotearoa – including taking radical climate action now.
The problem is, New Zealand doesn’t have an easily accessible, easily
understandable written constitution that articulates what those shared values are.
11.1. As other countries have done, we need to put our environmental health first, human
rights implementation second, strengthening and protection of our democratic
institutions third – and importantly, put the privileges of corporations last
(corporations are not natural persons deserving of the same rights as human beings,
nor are they deserving of legal personality like the Whanganui River or the Urewera
national park). When it comes to ‘hard choices’, corporate privileges must be
subservient, and the environment’s and human rights superior.

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11.2. He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti also need to be at the heart of constitution and our
Democracy, not just because:
i. the Crown promised protection of hapū rangatiratanga and all our taonga;
but also because
ii. te Tiriti and the tangata whenua values reflected in it serve to moderate
what would otherwise be a tyranny of the dominant consumeristic,
individualistic, capitalistic culture here in Aotearoa which has driven us to
climate crisis.
11.3. Recommendation: Create a constitution for Aotearoa New Zealand constructed
effectively and with citizens’ meaningful participation (including tangata whenua free,
prior and informed consent) which mandates and obliges Governments to act boldly
to realise our nation’s core values, in a way that would do justice to the gravity of our
climate emergency.

Give 16 year olds the vote

12. Younger generations deserve to meaningfully influence decision-making from here
on out. They:
a. Will be the most affected in terms of:
i. How little time they have to live a dignified life; and
ii. How profoundly more chaotic their lives will be; while at the same time
b. Have contributed the least to this climate crisis.
12.2. Recommendation: Give 16 year olds’ the right to vote; and create mechanisms
whereby young people can have a specially-weighted seat at all key decision-making
tables, including the Climate Commission.
Education
13. Our school curricula need to be ‘fit for purpose’ so that young people are empowered
in areas critical to protecting human rights and mitigating the worst effects of climate
crisis, including the subjects of civics, leadership, social psychology, indigenous
culture and traditional knowledge, economics, environmental regeneration and
science:
13.1. And not just the Earth sciences that help restore and bring balance to our natural
world, or engineering science that might invent technologies to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and such – but also, the now widely recognized science of quantum
and meta-physics19 that gives new understanding about how people have the power,
through our thought and mind, to perform in optimal states of consciousness20 and to
shape hard, molecular-based reality.

Ngā mihi/ regards,

Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn

(Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kuri)

Bl/ B.Soc.Sci, LLM
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Indigenous Fellow 2005

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Attachment:

Speaking notes
Whangārei District Council Meeting
Thursday 2019 June 27, 10:30am

INTRODUCTION
Thank you for allowing us to present briefly to you.

1. My name is Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn;

1.1. I am of Ngāti Kuri and Te Rarawa descent.

1.2. I’ve lived in Te Taitokerau for most of my life, and in the Whangārei area with my husband
for the last 18 months.

EXTINCTION REBELLION
2. I’ve been asked to speak today on behalf of Extinction Rebellion Whangārei:

a. Extinction Rebellion originated in the United Kingdom last year, motivated by ordinary
people’s deep concern about the lack of political leadership to urgently mitigate and
adapt to climate crisis.

b. The movement quickly gained traction throughout the world, including Aotearoa.

c. It’s kaupapa is (in a nutshell), in collaboration with others, and through peaceful civil
action – including where necessary, disruptive action – to rebel against climate inaction,
and to force change so that Governments:

i. Tell the truth by declaring a climate emergency;

ii. Act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero
by 2025; and

iii. Create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate justice.

DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY

3. Recently, we’ve seen that Councils including Canterbury, Nelson, Dunedin, Wellington and
Auckland have all declared a climate emergency, and indications are more councils will
follow.

3.1. We’ve come today calling on Whangārei District Council to be the next.

The evidence all around us

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3.2. You may ask why we are urging Council to do this, especially when we know Council has
already devoted significant attention and resources over recent years to progressively
developing its response to climate change.

3.3. In fact, we must assume Council is already acutely aware of the high risk areas for local
infrastructure, like:

a. Stormwater systems (for example, at Teal Bay and elsewhere) that are under
unprecedented pressure;

b. Coastal and seawall erosion (for example, at One Tree Point, and Sandy Bay); and

c. Low-lying areas prone to flooding, storm surges or advancing sea level rise, like:

i. Residential sites at Waipu cove and the recent housing development at Tutukaka –
these will become stranded assets;

ii. Roading in Ngunguru, Whangaruru and other areas prone to being submerged by
heavy rain events; and

iii. Most of Council’s small wastewater treatment plants (like those located in
Ngunguru, Tutukaka and Oakura), plus all individual septic tanks and seepage fields.

3.4. And, we recognize Council for already having the foresight to endorse the “Local
Government Leaders’ Climate Change Declaration” (2017).

3.5. So you may ask, what value does declaring a climate emergency add?

Emergency, not “change”

4. Firstly, we believe language is important.

4.1. The 2017 Local Government Declaration was a very good start. It spoke about “ambitious”
action plans and taking a precautionary approach. But those laudable aims were offset with
the mixed message of mere climate “change” and “potential” threats to life on Earth.

4.2. The term climate “change” is seriously misrepresentative given what’s at stake: it’s like
describing a burning building as just ‘a little bit warm’. And it perpetuates the dangerously
false idea that our predicament can be fixed by action which, even if “ambitious” when
compared to ‘business as usual’, still lies within the realms of ‘the conventional’.

a. Like this persistent idea in the Zero Carbon Bill (which we note is a supplementary
Agenda Item for today) that aiming for zero net greenhouse gas emissions targets by
2050 is enough to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis. But the science itself
tells us that WON’T be enough – on our current emissions producing trajectory, we’ll
have overshot the 2 degree Celsius mark by 2050.

4.3. So our predicament can no longer be fixed that way.

a. The window for incremental change has passed. It’s scientific fact: we’re in the 6th mass
extinction today; ecological thresholds are being breached faster than you can say
“How’s the weather?”!
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 b. There are, according to experts, sufficient socio-economic indicators that we’re already
on the spectrum of civilisation decline. Now, only positive radical action will do.

4.4. So, again: we recognize Council for having signed up to the first climate Declaration. But now
it’s time to call it what it is: a climate “emergency”. Council can do more than what it
declared in 2017, but only if Council relates to our situation as an emergency.

June Poll shows support for declaration

5. And if you need evidence that the people are behind you on this, let’s remember the recent
‘1 NEWS Colmar Brunton poll’ (13 June) that showed a majority of New Zealanders believe
“It's time for NZ to declare a climate emergency”.

5.1. Of those polled, 53% were in support (with 8% undecided).

a. It’s worthy to note that among those more inclined to support the declaration were
significant sectors of society:

i. Pacific peoples whose island nations are profoundly at risk (meaning increased
refugee populations needed to be re-located to Aotearoa);

ii. Māori who feature disproportionately among the poorest in Te Tai Tokerau, and as
the poorest, will be hit first and hardest by the impacts of climate crisis; and

iii. Persons aged between 18-34 whose futures are being stolen from them. Ask any
School Strike 4 Climate young person, and they will tell you this is patently unjust,
as they have contributed the least to the climate crisis.

5.2. Declaring a climate emergency would show leadership, and be responsive by offering a clear
sign that Council hears the people’s concerns.

In conclusion

6. The World Economic Forum has cautioned about systemic Governance failure as a very real
global risk.

6.1. We urge you to buck that trend, and provide a clear signal that our elected officials are
giving our climate crisis the attention it deserves;

6.2. a sign citizens can all citizens galvanise around;

6.3. that gives us permission to grieve – and then move to action;

6.4. that encourages our youth to keep fighting for their future; and

6.5. that reflects a revolution of the heart and mind so that we might avoid a revolution out in
the streets.

Thank you.

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1
See the SS4C website at https://www.schoolstrike4climatenz.com/zero-carbon-
bill?fbclid=IwAR09p1WIjF56WWRstwr01lWG1d2H8RB6_A6jBWeO-ha4LVXDP80mxzO3xIY; and their list of demands,
at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vb4voJUHwmPvul75AHlBw7QoIo6oaviCI8U9HTYIzhs/edit.
2
See the SS4C list of demands, at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vb4voJUHwmPvul75AHlBw7QoIo6oaviCI8U9HTYIzhs/edit.
3
https://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/press-release/russel-norman-toothless-zero-carbon-bill-has-bark-but-no-
bite/.
4
“The People’s Budget – a Town Hall Event” (31 May 2019), https://www.nzptv.org.nz/videos/the-peoples-budget, at
47:30 mins.
5
Oram, note 4 above, at 15:12 mins.
6
Hope, note 4 above, at 47:30 mins.
7
Kelsey, note 4 above, at 14:00 mins.
8
Bradford, note 4 above, at 16:00 mins.
9
Nana, note 4 above, at 11:20 mins.
10
E.g. see what US President Roosevelt did in the 1930’s depression era with his “New Deal” programs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0tPZoPWgBI, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bMq9Ek6jnA, and
https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/new-deal, and Roosevelt paid for it by taxing the rich.
11
See explanation at.
12
See TV program about “positive money”: https://www.positivemoney.org.nz/Site/seven-sharp-video.aspx.
13
See how money is created by banks out of nothing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu9DW3T0Ook.
14
See https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/.
15
See website at https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/.
16
For instance, at “The People’s Budget – a Town Hall Event” (31 May 2019), and in response to commentary from the
panel which raises the issue, Bryan Bruce asks the question “You raised ignoring the welfare working group, and [that
the Government’s] largely ignored the tax working group. Is this becoming a bit of a pattern?” See
https://www.nzptv.org.nz/videos/the-peoples-budget, at 35:02 mins.
17
See the ‘Story of Stuff’ explanation of how the ETS operates, and why it’s unethical and doesn’t work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA6FSy6EKrM.
18
To understand why it’s failed, see for e.g. https://corporateeurope.org/en/environment/2015/10/eu-emissions-
trading-5-reasons-scrap-ets.
19
See experts commenting on what “reality” is and how our consciousness affects how reality creates:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUyqfUut8lA, and tips on creating:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7cYsgB4G1s&list=PLyaWCGWaXTWvPFGiUapR2DrvAZ3CaA35T&index=27.
20
E.g. see “How To Get Into The Flow State | Steven Kotler” (Feb 19, 2019) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG_hNZ5T4nY&list=PLyaWCGWaXTWsOV70zHde3ZwB8VKLEEcVF&index=14.

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