Guest essay by Eric Worrall
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who won a historic landslide victory in national elections a week ago on a deep green manifesto, is being urged to apply lessons learned achieving New Zealands’ near total victory over Covid-19 to addressing the climate crisis.
New Zealand PM Ardern urged to apply crisis skills to climate change
Environmentalists urge re-elected leader, who won praise for her handling of the pandemic, to double down on fossil fuel use and farming emissions.
New Zealand’s re-elected Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern should use the skills she honed in successfully crushing the threat of Covid-19 to focus on a green recovery and help farmers tackle climate change’s “nuclear-free moment”, environmentalists said.
Ardern, whose Labour Party won a landslide victory in the general election last weekend, made a name for herself by responding decisively to the coronavirus pandemic and healing the nation after the killing of Muslims by a white supremacist.
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Amanda Larsson, a senior campaigner at Greenpeace in Auckland, said Ardern had shown she excelled at leading her nation through a crisis.
The prime minister now needs “to apply the skills that she’s developed from dealing with the unthinkable, to tackling the ongoing, known crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss”, Larsson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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Read more: https://www.eco-business.com/news/new-zealand-pm-ardern-urged-to-apply-crisis-skills-to-climate-change/
Ardern, who previously governed with the help of the Green Party and New Zealand First, now has the numbers to govern without coalition partners. But she seems keen to maintain cordial relations with her green partners.
New Zealanders vote for climate ambition of Jacinda Ardern and Greens
Published on 19/10/2020, 12:43pm
Jacinda Ardern won a second term as New Zealand leader with a landslide majority, in an endorsement of her government’s net zero emissions goal
By Joe Lo
New Zealand’s voters overwhelmingly endorsed the ambitious climate policies of Jacinda Ardern and her Green coalition partners, in a general election on Saturday.
Ardern’s Labour Party received nearly 50% of the vote and 53% of the seats in parliament, allowing her to govern for a second term without relying on other parties. However, she may still include the Greens in her next administration.
For the last three years, Labour has relied on the Greens and the populist New Zealand First to govern. While the Green Party increased its vote share from 6% to 8%, the climate-ambivalent New Zealand First lost all its seats.
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Read more: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/10/19/new-zealanders-vote-climate-ambition-jacinda-ardern-greens/
It is anyone’s guess how Ardern’s commitment to ratchet up climate ambition will play out. There is no doubt she has a strong popular mandate for greater climate ambition.
The original Maori inhabitants’ name for New Zealand, Aotearoa, means “land of the long white cloud”. This is a fair description of New Zealand’s normal weather, especially during New Zealand’s long, cold winters, so solar power is probably a non starter.
New Zealand has some very windy places, and with all their tall mountain ranges New Zealand has potentially excellent hydroelectric sites which could be developed. In principle they could also develop their plentiful geothermal opportunities; like Iceland, New Zealand has some impressive volcano complexes, with plenty of strong heat sources accessibly close to the surface.
Of course all of this green development would take lots of money. Money New Zealand does not have. New Zealand might have achieved victory over Covid with their early, hard lockdown, but New Zealand’s economy is a mess.
However New Zealand’s national debt, though deteriorating rapidly, is still a manageable 48% of GDP. So in principle there is plenty of financial room for Ardern to borrow vast sums of money to fund New Zealand’s green transition, should she choose to do so.
I suspect if there is one place in the world where a full hearted “green Covid recovery” will be attempted, that nation is New Zealand.
mimic covid response? New Zealand locked down (twice I believe because lockdowns works so well, why dont we lockdown a second time… masks work so well, that a second lockdown was required) and had the worst economic downturn on record as far as I’m aware. The island country is still closed to outsiders (unless that’s changed recently). with such success against covid, imagine the damage they can do with a similar global warming response. pathetic…. but New Zealanders voted for it so they must know something outsiders don’t.
Not true about ‘worst economic downturn’, thats a falsehood spread in Australia. Yes its a bigger GDP drop compared to Australia but the reasons are the highest level of lockdown reduced economic activity ( but there was a period of zero cases well ahead of Australia) and the other main reason is international tourism is a bigger share of the economy than Australia ( like Australia they closed borders to foreign tourists). Strangely Australians needed government permission to leave the country while that wasnt the case in NZ – there was long range air routes open to Europe via Middle east or to US
“Duker October 24, 2020 at 11:12 pm
Not true about ‘worst economic downturn’, thats a falsehood spread in Australia.”
That’s bollox too!
Its from Sky news at night’ …enough said
Wheres your evidence ?
A lot of the billions ‘allocated’ for the reserve Bank to create credit hasnt yet been done so, and every time any economic data comes out its far far better them that ‘predicted’
Australia of course ‘hasnt yet got on top of the Virus’ so their costs continue to rise
“Duker October 25, 2020 at 5:08 pm
Australia of course ‘hasnt yet got on top of the Virus’ so their costs continue to rise.”
Again, total bollox. VICTORIA hasn’t “got on top of the virus” because the other states realises it’s pointless CASES. No DEATHS! It’s a scandemic of biblical proportions.
duker… im not an economist so I must trust one of these sources has done the dirty work correctly:
NZ largest ecnomic downturn on record according to https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/17/new-zealand-in-covid-recession-after-worst-quarterly-gdp-fall-on-record
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-09-16/new-zealand-economy-contracts-the-most-since-great-depression
https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/zealand-economy-shrinks-record-12-233730478.html
All that deserves a Haka . . .
I am normally a National voter, but poles indicated a Labor / Green coalition looked certain, so voted Labor in the hope that Labor could govern with out being dragged further to the left by the greens.
From commentary in the media prior to the election, many others took the same view.
As to healing the nation….. in their echo chamber they healed, but deepened the rifts of those how live outside the echo chamber
Why don’t some of you who are commenting from afar learn a little before you shoot your mouths and put your foot in it .
Most of the ill informed content is about our lock downs but our dairy and meat processing plants kept working which was not the case in many other countries .
I know for a fact that a large vegetable wholesaler in Scotland were shut down because they had some staff test positive.
Their protests were overruled and super markets went short and vegetables wasted in the fields .
This never happened here in New Zealand as agriculture was designated an essential industry but logging was halted as port workers only worked to load essentials and perishables .
Some of you commenting here seem to think that New Zealanders are soft and can be pushed around .
You have sure got that wrong .
How many times have the All blacks won the Rugby world Cup ?
How many times have we won the Americas Cup for Yachting which we currently hold and we are holding the Regatta races in Auckland this New Zealand summer .
For a country of 5 million we do very well against countries with far larger populations .
It is very easy to sit overseas and criticize but are you still in lockdown or if not you are still admitting people to hospital with Covid 19.
We are not in lock down and our total death toll is 25 and the majority were from a Christchurch rest home that were infected by a visitor from a cruise liner that had an Italian crew member flown out from Italy to join the cruise and that person infected a number of passengers and crew and the liner was quarantined when it arrived back in Sydney .
I take issue with some Aussie comments concerning lock downs and I would say you know very little of what has gone on .
On my many visits to Auz I have met people there that think that NZ would be just the same as Auz and have no desire to venture across the Tasman Sea ,but it is very different once you get out of the cities .
A friend traveled from New Zealand to attend her son in laws funeral and despite there being no community transmissions in New Zealand but fairly rampant in Sydney she was locked down for 14 days but was let out to attend the funeral for 3 hours .
She will have to be isolated for 2 weeks when she comes back here .
Life here is just about back to normal except there are no overseas tourists driving down the wrong side of the road that happened quite frequently .Despite that they will be missed and I am sure that you would not be disappointed with a holiday or tour of New Zealand .
Graham
Don’t get too defensive Graham. New Zealand is a beautiful country, I’ve been there and I’d recommend people visit, when they can. And they can expect a warm welcome.
We’re all feeling pretty ordinary right now, unsure about the future. We need to be a little bit kinder to each other.
Thanks Megs ,
I am just trying to tell things as they are.
A lot of those commenting above are made by people before they put their brain into gear .
Some of the comments are stupid and vile and how would those same people react when the results of the US election are broadcast and no matter who wins you will get commentators talking up the end of life as they know it .
New Zealanders will soon wake up and the Government is well aware that if they don’t perform they will be dumped in 3 year time and that will happen .
Graham
There are always going to be people who didn’t like the way an election went Graham. There are always going to be people angry at the result and some don’t deal with it well.
I think New Zealand have come off lightly compared to compare to the likely reaction in America next week. I personally hope that Trump is returned but there will no doubt be ugly scenes if he is, or if he isn’t. The situation in America is so much more volatile. The stakes are high and there is alot to lose.
Ugly scenes will only happen if Trump isnt re-elected …. spured by the only candidate who wont accept defeat.. which is crazy when you think as it will encourage his opponents to get to vote in a country that can have low turnouts compared to most other western countries
Duker. I just don’t know what you are on about. You already have ugly scenes in the USA and it isn’t from the right. Time to take those rose tinted glasses off.
I wonder what NZ would look like today if that labor strike among dock workers in WW2 had held up the move on Guadalcanal by American forces in halting Imperial Japan. The arrow of time has a lot of bends in it that are lost and mostly forgotten.
There are a lot of people in a new generation of NZers who are ignorant of the fact that their very existance is owed to the US Marines in the Pacific… their grandfathers would have been butchered or starved to death in Jap concentration camps. Take heart… history will not be forgotten.
Mack
October 26, 2020 at 4:57 am
Yes, you’re quite right about the lack of historical knowledge. However in school now they get lots of Maori lore and stories about cuddly whales and trees instead! Not much real science. The kids (and politicians) can lecture you for hours about how terrible we and our CO2 are. I fear for the future…
A Quick history lesson for Mack and Resource guy.
New Zealanders served in both World Wars on the other side of the world and during WW2 the USA was sitting on the sideline not actively fighting untill the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor .
New Zealanders and Australians fought along side American soldiers in the Pacific and the American Military had bases in New Zealand .
Get your facts right before blowing your mouth off .
Britain and her allies were fighting to stop the Nazis and the USA was not prepared to declare war untill Pearl Harbor although they helped with aid and supplies .
Graham
As a New Zealander, I must admit I was extremely saddened, but not surprised by the results of
The swing to give Labour and Arden such a decisive win seems to have been driven by tactical voting by many National Supporters (on the right).
With New Zealand’s truly weird proportional representation system MMP, the Green Party held incredible sway in the previous Government and many rural National Supporters appear to have switched allegiance simply to keep the Greens away from power. MMP provides for around 50% of MP’s to be elected via a local constituency, and the other 50% via Proportional Representation of the particular party.
With JacinaArdern appearing almost daily on TV screens explaining how well she was dealing with Covid, teh other parties just didn’t stand a chance.
Add to that the massive spending the Government spread aroujn like confetti, with $100m given to Maoridom just 2 weeks out from Election Day. But in New Zealand, voting starts early, and money was being spread even after voting had started.
And PS, Maori never had a collective name for New Zealand. Aotearoa is a modern invention being adopted by Maori along with a hybrid language they like to call Te Reo.
They will make a nice Chinese or NK province someday and Americans are not coming to the rescue.
I don’t know where you are from resource guy but that is a stupid comment .
Brain not engaged when mouth opens .
New Zealanders are fiercely independent and at one time it was suggested that we become a state of Australia but that soon got kicked to touch.
We sell our produce to the highest bidder .
Have you never heard of the Global Dairy Auction set up by Fonterra and held twice a month every month of the year . This sets the price for all dairy products traded on world markets and we have to export to the world to be able to import goods that can be manufactured cheaper somewhere overseas
A lot of our cheaper cuts of meat have been sold to China because their pork industry has been decimated with swine fever .
We do have a defense treaty with Australia and the USA called ANZUS so I don’t know who is pulling your chain .
Graham
Quote “New Zealanders are fiercely independent”
Can I change that? “New Zealanders were fiercely independent”
With the immigration we have had we just aren’t the same country any more. In the small country town I live in within the small block I live in I am starting to feel that the Chinese are taking over and I am curious as to why it is happening. It is also interesting that it is just about always the Chinese females that face the public and never the males. Part of the reason could be that the females pick up language better than the males. This little street has changed so much it is unrecognisable from fifty years ago when it almost wasn’t.
“always the Chinese females…”
Aahahahaha…. of course it’s always females who have to face the public… it’s much easier to get spin and propaganda out from the velvety lips of a woman…. it’s the corporate thing to do… push a woman up front to face the music. Trouble is, in NZ, the whole government has been taken over by Maori and women. The age of the pale, stale, male, looks to be in severe permanant jeopardy . Trump is our only hope.
We’ve just got to harden the f.. up, and get used to it. Think of Billy Connolly’s wisdom…. “The mere fact you aspire to be a politician should preclude you from being one”
Correction 1. Aotearoa was not the original Maori name for NZ. A few North Island tribes used it as a name for the North Island. Maori did not have a name for the NZ archipelago. Aotearoa was first used by Europeans . We should have asked Maori to provide a new Maori name.
Correction 2. The election wasn’t a landslide. The sycophantic media puffed it up.
Correction 3. Adhern has to learn how to get things done. Her first term was a very, very bad by any measure, except for her spin ability and her Covid work which she did moderately well, but at the cost of the economy.
One of our Aussie mates suggested we migrate. Count me in because I dread the future. I am currently at one of our normally vibrant tourist destinations and it is dead. Suicide and depression by farmers is high, and crops can’t be picked because Jacinda won’t let our foreign agricultural workers come in. And some export crop prices are shaky.
“Kiwirealist October 25, 2020 at 11:25 pm
One of our Aussie mates suggested we migrate. Count me in because I dread the future.”
To Aus? Don’t be too hasty…it’s just as bad here, and when you arrive you are a “second class” temporary resident (444 visa).
I am actually amazed at how many Kiwis are on here. Far more than our population would indicate.
Well that photo proves that the Tooth Fairy really does exist. Pity she’s presently resident in EnZed.
A significant number of Kiwis would agree with you that it is indeed a great pity.
Regardless of the arguments for and against green energy, the comment in the article:
“The original Maori inhabitants’ name for New Zealand, Aotearoa, means “land of the long white cloud”. This is a fair description of New Zealand’s normal weather, especially during New Zealand’s long, cold winters, so solar power is probably a non starter.”
This is incorrect. NZ does not have long, cold winters. Our winters are relatively short and in fact solar power works very well in this country.