OraTaiao submission on Auckland Council's Annual Budget, 24 March 2022

"OraTaiao welcomes the climate action package – including the targeted rate - which is not only crucial to reducing the city’s growing greenhouse gas emissions, but also offers significant health benefits to residents by improving public transport, cycleways and walkways and increasing urban forests."

Read full submission here.

OraTaiao submission, 24 November 2021

The Government's draft plan to reduce emission over the next 15 years is unambitious, flawed in many areas, and inadequate as a plan addressing the “biggest health crisis of the 21st century". The potential to recoup costs of emissions reducing policies with significant health gains, let alone savings from avoided climate change, must drive responsible and effective emissions planning.

Read full submission here.

MEDIA STATEMENT, 18 November 2021

Was NZ-Aotearoa’s appearance at the world’s climate conference COP26 our nuclear-free moment? “Definitely not,” said OraTaiao Co-convenor Dr Dermot Coffey, “but the good news is that the government can vastly improve on its COP26 failings by putting in place an emissions reduction plan that achieves a healthier, more resilient and more equitable Aotearoa.”

Be braver about climate change, New Zealand. Dr George Laking. The Spinoff, 29 October 2021.

Seven health professional organisations groups have written an open letter to Jacinda Ardern ahead of COP26, demanding a huge increase in Aotearoa’s international climate contribution. OraTaiao Exec member Dr George Laking writes, "Human-induced climate change is the number one threat to health this century. Many people are used to thinking of health as cancer and other chronic conditions. But the things that truly decide health are such basic matters as a food supply and political stability, that in turn depend on the environment." Read here. 

Seven health professional organisations (OraTaiao, the College of Nurses Aotearoa, New Zealand Nurses Organisation, New Zealand Medical Association, Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and New Zealand Society of Anaesthetists) have written a joint letter to Prime Minister Ardern and the Climate Change Minister ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP26, calling for a huge increase in Aotearoa’s international climate contribution, and asking to keep the capacity to limit global warming within a humanly adaptable 1.5 degrees.  

• Letter to Rt Hon Ardern - October 2021

MEDIA RELEASE, 3 May 2020

Leading NZ health professional organisations have written to the Government asking them to prioritise Budget 2020 funding for a just transition to a climate-resilient, sustainable and low-emissions economy.

The letter, led by OraTaiao: NZ Climate & Health Council, was sent to the Minister and Associate Ministers of Finance on Sunday 3 May, and urges the Government to heed health advice that has for many years been warning of the serious health threat posed by the climate crisis.