Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to our latest pānui!
This pānui contains OraTaiao updates, upcoming events, and news in climate health.
Registrations and presentation proposals are now open for the 2025 Taiao. Tangata. Hauora: Climate Health & Sustainable Healthcare Conference. We welcome you to register.
As we move into colder months, health and climate spheres remain hotly contested. We are encouraged by the Parliament’s rejection of the Treaty Principles Bill, yet await the disheartening introduction of the Regulatory Standards Bill later this year. A highly contentious review of health workforce regulation is also underway. You can find our draft submission below.
Have you considered becoming a candidate for a local election? The 2025 local elections will be a critical area for climate health, and OraTaiao is linking up with national campaigns, including a local candidate incubator.
Our next OraTaiao Executive Board Meeting is Thursday, 1 May, at 7 p.m. We would love for you to join us. Pop the Zoom link in your calendar here.
Ngā mihi nui,
Summer & Dani
Co-convenor, Coordinator, OraTaiao: Aotearoa NZ Climate & Health Council
Latest updates from OraTaiao
OraTaiao, together with Sustainable Healthcare Aotearoa, Climate Health Aotearoa, and the Climate and Health Alliance, warmly invite registrations and presentation proposals for the 2025 Taiao. Tangata. Hauora: Climate Health & Sustainable Healthcare Conference. The conference will be an action-oriented sharing of diverse research and practices about climate change, health, and sustainable healthcare in Aotearoa and beyond, centralising mātauranga Māori and Indigenous knowledges.
When: 28 - 29 July, 2025
Where: Nordmeyer Lecture Theatre, Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka University of Otago, Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, with HUB spaces available in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Ōtautahi Christchurch and Ōtepoti Dunedin, and an option to attend online.
Register and submit your proposal here.
Image from event website
Constitution update
We are working on the changes required to revise our constitution and operational processes to comply with the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 and reregister as a 2022 Act society. We have a new draft constitution and are identifying proposals for discussion with our Executive Board. All members will be invited to a general meeting later in the year to consult and approve our updated constitution and reregistration application.
Prescription for planetary health
Image from School Strike 4 Climate Pōneke Instagram
OraTaiao shared a medical certificate to participate in the School Strike 4 Climate demonstration on April 11th. We endorse their key demands: repeal the Fast-Track Approvals Bill and protect Māori lands from further exploitation.
We get behind these strikes because, as health professionals, we have a responsibility to encourage actions in support of human and planetary health and intergenerational justice.
Review of health workforce regulation
The government is inviting submissions on the future of regulation of the health workforce. Unfortunately, the review completely side-steps te Tiriti o Waitangi and cultural safety, and co-opts health language (e.g., ‘patient-centred regulation’) to frame current workforce regulation as ‘red-tape’. At the same time, rolling and proposed cuts continue to threaten the future of the health sector and the wellbeing of health workers. See our draft submission here and feel free to use it to submit your own by Wednesday, the 30th of April.
Upcoming events
WEBINAR: CAHA Training - Talking about clean energy solutions for climate and health
When: Wednesday, 30 April @ 2 pm
The Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) has partnered with Renew Australia For All to deliver this free CAHA training, which will equip health professionals with the knowledge and tools to speak to the climate and health co-benefits of a clean energy transition.
WEBINAR: Lobbying in Aotearoa
When: Thursday, 1 May @ 12 pm
Health Coalition Aotearoa is hosting a webinar about their campaign, Level the Lobbying Playing Field. Register here.
Image from Eventbrite
WEBINAR: Wellbeing Economy 101
When: Tuesday, 24 June @ 7 pm
In March, Summer and Dani met with Sophie Handford and Gareth Hughes to learn more about Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa. They have a Tiriti-grounded vision for a more prosperous Aotearoa, as measured by the wellbeing of our communities and environment. Register for their Wellbeing Economy 101 call on June 24th to learn more about their kaupapa.
Free visual resources from WEAll
WEALL is also running a Future Generations campaign, which will see a Bill put to Parliament similar to the Welsh Future Generations Act and the work of Foundations for Tomorrow. This mahi is guided by te Tiriti and is the antithesis to the Regulatory Standards Bill, encouraging Aotearoa to embrace a policy and legislative framework that ensures accountability to future generations and te taiao.
GLOW WEBINAR
When: Monday, 5 May @ 7 pm
We are excited to support GLOW, a 12-week candidate incubator providing professional development support for community and climate leaders to enter and thrive in local government. The programme is brought to you by a coalition of dedicated environmental campaigners, community leaders, Local Government experts, and climate action advocates, led by Climate Club and The Future is Rail.
Interested (or know someone) keen to stand for local government? Join their public webinar on May 5th @ 7 pm to learn more about the GLOW programme and network.
Image from GLOW Aotearoa Instagram
Planetary Health Forum
When: 7th May, AUT South Campus, Tāmaki Makaurau
Join the Planetary Health Forum for a full day of action-oriented sessions. Register via the QR code on the flyer.
Image from AUTSPHIDS Instagram
New resources
Planetary health checks and new research on health equity in a stable earth system call attention to the rapid action required, as do real stories exploring the many ways in which a changing climate is impacting people’s health and well-being around the world.
Our friends from Take the Jump have created posters for GPs and other health professionals to hang up in their waiting rooms. These posters highlight seven shifts to support wellbeing, live with joy, and protect nature.
Check out Papakupu Para Kore, an awesome raeumi exploring kupu for all things para kore (zero waste) and sustainable practices. Para Kore also has some paid digital resources about sustainability. Take a look here.
Image from Para Kore
Keen to learn more about innovation in healthcare waste? Check out the latest Sustainable Healthcare Aotearoa Panel for insights on the right to repair medical devices and syringe recycling in hospitals.
NHS England and UCLPartners have created a comprehensive toolkit to help reduce waste from piped nitrous oxide and nitrous oxide/oxygen mixture gas delivery systems. Included are case studies and tangible actions to support hospitals reduce waste.
Feeling inspired? Have your say on the proposed amendments to waste legislation. Submissions close 1 June.
News in climate and health
Waste incinerator rejected
In great climate health news, the Waimate incinerator project was rejected. The incinerator at Te Awamutu is still in limbo, with Zero Waste Network leading the charge on these campaigns, which you can support here.
Another hurdle cleared in the fight against polluters
Mike Smith is looking forward to his case against a number of fossil fuel and dairy companies, with the hope of setting a precedent that large emitters could be held liable for contributing to climate change. Lillian Hanly from RNZ reports: Smith wants to "hold the defendants to account for their emissions before it is too late and irreparable damage ensues". Smith believes that if the case were successful, it could lead to the development of a new tort, establishing a duty on entities to "cease materially contributing to damage to the climate system". The hearing is scheduled for April 2027.
Denniston’s coal monstrosity
Image from 350 Aotearoa Website
350 Aotearoa is leading a campaign against a particularly climate-damaging fast-track project: the Denniston Coal Mine. This mine alone could rival our whole country’s annual emissions. Over Easter weekend, we saw the first protest of many if Bathurst goes ahead with its planned West Coast expansion.
Bathurst's monstrous mine proposal relies on ANZ continuing to offer banking services to Bathurst. With enough pressure, we can push ANZ to phase out banking services with not only Bathurst, but all fossil fuel expansion companies. Sign the petition today.
OraTaiao is working on a statement on fast-track projects such as these, which will affirm our position on climate justice and te Tiriti in a context where economic and political arrangements constrain Māori sovereignty, kaitiakitanga, and climate justice.
Ministers continue propping up pollution
Inland Revenue and Treasury have advised the government that there is no evidence that large yearly subsidies to some of the country's biggest carbon polluters are needed. The free carbon credits, worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, mainly benefit five firms deemed to be exposed to trade competition, including Fletcher Building, Ballance, and NZ Steel. At the current rate of phaseout - of 1 percent a year, rising to 3 percent in the 2040s - the government could still be subsidising heavy emitters in 2060, money that could otherwise be spent on supporting green jobs.
Stunning verdict against Greenpeace
Another major event was the $667m verdict against Greenpeace last month. Denied a fair trial, this sets a dangerous precedent for climate activism. Indigenous leaders have decried the verdict, and Greenpeace intends to appeal it.
Palestine update
Romelli, one of our amazing OraTaiao Board members, has compiled some key updates on Palestine. How can you help? Join Aotearoa Healthcare Workers for Palestine. You can also Donate to the Doctors Without Borders Gaza Response Fund.
Our Environment 2025 report
The three-yearly environmental report, Our environment 2025, was made available in early April. The 2024 update of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas inventory shows that in 2022 our total gross emissions were at their lowest since 1999, but still higher than in 1990. However, air temperatures and the incidence of severe weather events continue to rise.
The report highlights ongoing and expected climate-related pressures on health, including our relationships to place and tūrangawaewae, and access to healthy food and water (page 66 onwards).
The kitchen, the garden, and the local market are home to some of the most important work happening in climate change resilience. Learn more about some of the remarkable people working in food and regeneration.
Image of the food forest at Papatūānuku Kōkiri marae, from UoA article
Thanks for reading! Have something to share? Get in touch.
Dani, OraTaiao Coordinator