bFM News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Dermot Coffey, a Co-Convenor of OraTaiao: NZ Climate and Health Council, who represents health workers and students around the motu, about why they are joining the call to make public transport free and accessible for all. 

Here is that interview.

Given the weak outcome on fossil fuels at COP27, the agreement to set up a fund to compensate developing countries for climate change loss and damage will be sorely needed, write OraTaiao Co-convenors Dermot Coffey and Summer Wright. Read here. 

OraTaiao is relieved to finally see an end to the decades of delay in pricing agricultural climate pollution. But efforts to reduce agricultural emissions should be guided by a vision of the future we want for Aotearoa, centred around human and planetary health. Viewed in this light, the scale of change needed this decade demands modifications to the farm-level levy system proposed by the Government. 

Our submission is focused on optimising the benefits and minimising the damage to health, wellbeing and equity from agricultural production. Properly designed, a pricing system for agricultural emissions can drive a transition to regenerative farming and re-orient production away from high volume exports to sustainable and quality food production that will nourish local populations.

Read the full submission here. 

"Extensive and conclusive evidence now exists to show the health effects of our car-dominated transport system, including air pollution, enforced physical inactivity, trauma, sound pollution and neighbourhood severance. Yet fossil fuel powered work-related vehicles and Small Business Car Parking are exempted from Fringe Benefit Tax, while bikes, e-bikes and public transport are not. Barrier-reducing policies supporting work-related bicycle purchase exist in many European countries, and while this is only one component of a range of different measures promoting active transport including infrastructure development and safety improvements, it is an obvious area for improvement in Aotearoa."

Read OraTaiao's submission on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2022-23, Platform Economy, and Remedial Matters) Bill (No 2) here. 

MEDIA RELEASE, 27 October 2022

Health is at the mercy of a fossil fuel addiction. That’s the stark message from the seventh annual report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, launched in London today by the world's highest-impact general medical journal. 

OraTaiao is pleased to see Parliament’s Transport and Infrastructure Committee investigating passenger rail in Aotearoa NZ. We support the focus in the inquiry terms of reference.

Improving non-motorised transport options will contribute to greater social equity and economic opportunities for people who may not have access to a car. A rail network across the country that connects to other forms of public and active transport will enhance access to society for people living with disabilities. Research shows that public transport is much safer than travel by private vehicle. Climate action through low-emissions transport like rail would make great inroads to addressing the second largest source of climate pollution in Aotearoa. 

The full submission, prepared by Co-convenors Summer Wright and Dr Dermot Coffey along with Dr Matt Jenks and Dr James Hamill from the OraTaiao leadership, is available here

OraTaiao strongly supports a change in how our streets are imagined – not as simple thoroughfares or places to store private vehicles, but as part of living, healthy communities. The changes in the Ministry of Transport's proposed regulatory changes will go some way to giving agency back to neighbourhoods and communities, which has been highlighted as a key plank of our climate adaptation response. They will, if implemented correctly, contribute to improvements in physical and psychological well-being. We are pleased to support the overall aims of the draft “Reshaping Streets” changes, though we make recommendations where necessary to strengthen and expand on them.

The full submission, prepared by Dr Dermot Coffey and members of the OraTaiao leadership including Dr Matt Jenks and Dr James Hamill, is available here

In the first in a series of webinars hosted by OraTaiao, Alex Dyer of Cycle Wellington Paihikara Ki Pōneke talks about the opportunities of rethinking and transforming how we move around in order to benefit health and the climate. 

The health sector is the largest emitter of carbon emissions in the public sector. At Te Whatu Ora Southern, 58.6 percent of those emissions come from coal burnt at Dunedin and Invercargill hospitals. As reported in this news article, Dr Matt Jenks and Dr Dermot Coffey of OraTaiao are pushing for a phase-out of coal boilers at our hospitals. Read the article here. 

OraTaiao Co-convenor Dermot Coffey spoke with Indira Stewart on TVNZ Breakfast about New Zealand's First National Adaptation Plan. You can watch the interview here. 

OraTaiao's stance on climate action and public health supports the facilitation of active transportation in New Zealand. Currently, New Zealand's infrastructure does not support active transportation, with poor walkways and cycleways not allowing for complete trips to where people need and want to go. Nor do they support trips which are safe from traffic injury or crime. It is time for New Zealand to implement the infrastructure and policy needed for active transportation, which will have vast co-health benefits to the overstressed health system and reduce emissions leading to climate change. Read our full statement at the link below. 

Active Transportation Policy Statement

OraTaiao submission to the Environment Committee Komiti Taiao, 27 June 2022

"After OraTaiao’s twelve years of calling for fast fair Tiriti-founded climate action that is healthy for our planet and those who live here, we have mixed feelings about this plan. We are both relieved that legislative and governmental structures are in place with the first plan for climate action finally being proposed, and deeply concerned at how slow and limited this action is. 

"There are two fundamental flaws with the Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP): the level of ambition (speed, scale and coverage) is just a fraction of what’s needed, and the agricultural sector, which is our biggest climate polluter, is absent. OraTaiao commends however the ERP focus on empowering Māori." 

Read full submission, including our response to the Environment Committee Komiti Taiao’s key questions, here

This submission was prepared by representative members of OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate and Health Council including our Executive Board, Sylvia Boyd and Matthew Jenks. It is focused on optimising the benefits and minimising the damage to health, wellbeing and equity from our adaptation to climate change. We stress that our National Adaptation Plan must be an opportunity grasped to centralise Te Ao Māori, and return agency and leadership to iwi and hapū around the country. Finally, we recommend that the National Adaptation Plan takes more into account its crucial role in driving emissions reductions as well as simply adaptation.

Read full submission here.

The OraTaiao exec wanted to create a space for our members to share and engage with each other.
To access the members blog, sign in with your OraTaiao login - if you don't have one, just contact [email protected]

By Olivia Wannan for Stuff 05:00, Jun 15 2022

Photo: MONIQUE FORD/STUFF

Summer Wright (Ngāti Maniapoto, Pākehā) is a dietician undertaking her PhD at Massey University, investigating the opportunities for Māori businesses in plant-based kai. She is also a co-convenor for climate action and health advocacy group OraTaiao.

Continue reading here

On World Health Day, TV One News covers our joint letter to the Minister of Health, asking for a new sustainability unit in health sector.

See here from 7min 11s.