OraTaiao has made a submission on the Climate Change Commission’s draft advice to Government about the second emissions reduction plan.
OraTaiao commends the Commission in offering better recognition of the health co-benefits of climate action and the increased discussion of this throughout the draft advice. Maximising health co-benefits from well-designed climate action centred on human health, could give a shared and unifying focus for building greater government and public support within Aotearoa.
OraTaiao strongly agrees with the Commission that “Ultimately, a fair, inclusive, and equitable transition means pursuing in parallel issues of social and economic equity and tackling climate change.”
OraTaiao urges a co-governance approach for Aotearoa so that Māori may co-lead the journey to a sustainable future for all. Ensuring Māori have rangatiratanga over the integration of mātauranga Māori into policy design, development, and implementation at central and local government level, is essential.
We also make specific recommendations on a wide range of issues, including Emissions Trading Scheme settings, pricing of agricultural emissions at the same rates rates as other industries, the over-reliance on forestry for carbon removals, introducing a Carbon Border Mechanism, integrating walkways, cycleways, generous car share and easy public transport access in urban areas, reducing aviation emissions, retrofitting of all rental housing well before 2030, prioritising and widely promoting more ambitious gross emissions reductions, a just transition to public and locally-owned, nature-friendly, renewable electricity and ending all new oil, gas and coal exploration and extraction on land and at sea.
Our full submission, prepared by lead author Liz Springford with support from Dr Scott Metcalfe, Dr Dermot Coffey and Summer Wright, is available here.