MEDIA RELEASE, 27 February 2023
OraTaiao calls on all of Aotearoa to take a stand for human health at this Friday’s Climate Strikes to be held in ten cities and towns around our country.
“As health workers, we know that our changing climate is both the biggest threat to human health and well-being,” says Dr Dermot Coffey, OraTaiao co-convenor, “and the biggest chance to build a fairer, healthier Tiriti-founded future together.”
“The tragic losses from cyclones across Te Ika a Māui call for compassion, clean-ups, resilience-building – and most of all, fast cuts to our climate-destabilising emissions.”
“This is why we have issued medical certificates for everyone of every age and everywhere in Aotearoa, to join this Friday’s Global Climate Strike”, says Dr Coffey.
OraTaiao strongly supports School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s five demands: no new fossil fuel mining nor exploration, make it 16 for voting, 30% ocean protection by 2025, support regenerative farming, and e-bike rebates for lower income households. These demands will reduce our climate risk fairly, build resilience, and help ensure that Aotearoa’s rangatahi are a real part of climate planning and decision-making.
Dr Coffey says “Students clearly understand climate science and maths, they demand real climate action now, and it’s time for us to join them. Let’s make Cyclone Gabrielle recovery and resilience mahi over the coming months and years, matter. We must limit global warming within the humanly adaptable 1.5 degrees while we still can.”
OraTaiao calls on school trustees, teachers, parents, caregivers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and neighbours everywhere and from every workplace to join Aotearoa’s students to make this Friday’s Global Climate Strike our country’s biggest ever call for climate action.
OraTaiao’s Medical Certificate for all of Aotearoa on 3 March 2023 is here.
Notes to editors
This Friday 3 March 2023, SchoolStrike4ClimateNZ and Fridays for Future NZ collaborate to lead Aotearoa marching in at least ten urban locations – as part of the Global Climate Strike worldwide.
For more information: facebook.com/schoolstrike4climatenz, fridaysforfuture.nz/3-march-global-climate-strike/ and email [email protected]
The locations across Aotearoa this Friday include:
- Kaitaia 2.40pm Te Ahu Centre
- Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau 3pm Britomart Station
- New Plymouth Ngāmotu 12midday Puke Ariki Landing
- Palmerston North Te Papaioea 3pm The Square
- Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara 2pm Civic Square
- Nelson Whakatū 3pm Cathedral Steps
- Christchurch Ōtautahi 3pm Cathedral Square
- Dunedin Ōtepoti 3pm The Octagon
- Wanaka 3.15pm Lismore Park
- Queenstown Tāhuna 3pm Village Green
Head to facebook.com/schoolstrike4climatenz for updates.
School Strike 4 Climate NZ demands:
- No new fossil fuel mining nor exploration
- Make it 16
- 30% ocean protection by 2025
- Support regenerative farming
- E-bike rebates for lower income households
The 26 September 2019 school strike marches reportedly drew 170,000 New Zealanders – 3.5 per cent of the country’s population – onto the streets, most of them children.
Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of New Zealand, released in February 2023 by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child:
“34. Taking note of target 13.5 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Committee recalls its previous recommendations and further recommends that the State party facilitate the accessibility of children and young people, in particular Māori and Pasifika children and children living in low-income settings, to meaningfully participate in climate change planning and decision-making including on adaption and mitigation work, also as required by the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act 2019, and in the work of the Climate Commission.”