Stuff.co.nz: We need to talk about Vegans: should New Zealand embrace a meatless future?
Article on the merits of a plant-based diet, and changing consumer behaviour, with comments from OraTaiao Co-convenor Dr Alexandra Macmillan.
Read here.
Call for abstracts | Karanga mō ngā Tuhinga Whakarāpopoto
COVID-19: The Sustainable Healthcare and Climate Health Conference Aotearoa 2020 has been postponed and will now be held in mid-June 2021. There may be a series of webinars run later in 2020. For further information sign up to the mailing list at wellington-events@otago.ac.nz with your contact details and SHCH in the subject line.
Read more >Phasing out coal in schools and hospitals a win-win for health and the climate
MEDIA STATEMENT
30 January 2020
The Government’s announcement that it is committed to prioritising ending coal-burning for schools and hospitals is welcomed by health workers who have long been calling for such a move.
Read more >Otago Daily Times: Study finds plant-based diet could save climate
Article on research showing the emissions reductions, health benefits, and health cost savings which could be achieved from NZ moving to a plant-based diet, with comments from study author and OraTaiao member, Jono Drew and OraTaiao Co-convenor, Dr Alexandra Macmillan. ""Fortunately, foods that are health-promoting tend also to be those that are climate friendly."
Read here.
Newshub: Schools' climate change resource right about meat - study
Interview with OraTaiao Co-convenor Dr Alexandra Macmillan on the impact of diet and food production on greenhouse gas emissions.
Watch/read here.
Stuff.co.nz: Plant-based diets a 'win-win' for health, reducing greenhouse gas emissions - study
Article on the emissions reductions, health benefits, and health cost savings which could be achieved from NZ moving to a plant-based diet, with comments from OraTaiao Co-convenor Dr Alexandra Macmillan.
Read here.
NZ Herald: Plant-based diet: The case to help slash emissions and save billions
Article on the the emissions reductions, health benefits, and health cost savings which could be achieved from NZ moving to a plant-based diet, with comments from study author and OraTaiao member, Jono Drew and OraTaiao Co-convenor, Dr Alexandra Macmillan.
Read here.
Healthy and Climate-Friendly Eating Patterns in the New Zealand Context
Article in Environmental Health Perspectives by OraTaiao member Jono Drew with OraTaiao Co-convenor Dr Alexandra Macmillan and Anja Mizdrak, concluding that the consumption of whole, plant-based foods offer an opportunity to achieve substantial emissions reductions while simultaneously realising considerable health gains and health system cost savings.
Read here.
Emissions Trading Reform
OraTaiao submission, 17 January 2020
It is encouraging to see a cap on emissions units, a sinking lid mechanism and the phasing out of industrial allocation of free units incorporated into the draft Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Reform) Amendment Bill.
"We remain concerned however about the ongoing delay in integration of agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme, the slow phase down of free units to industry and the lack of a mechanism to recycle revenue from the sale of New Zealand Units to support a low carbon transition for those most likely to be impacted by the changes - low income, Māori and Pacific households."
Read full submission here (PDF). This submission is endorsed by the New Zealand Medical Association, Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa / New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), the Public Health Association of New Zealand, and the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine.
Newly appointed climate change commission a crucial step with major expertise gap
MEDIA STATEMENT
28 December 2019
The newly appointed climate change commission is an important step towards New Zealand being able to put the necessary policies in place to protect our health and wellbeing from climate change, but it lacks the full expertise to bring about the transformative change that New Zealand needs to meet its climate change commitments to ensure our safety and well-being into the future, according to Dr Alexandra Macmillan, Co-convenor, OraTaiao: NZ Climate and Health Council.