Climate change to steer all New Zealand government decisions from now on

A climate change “lens” will now be applied to all major decisions made by the government, New Zealand’s climate change minister has said, as floods and bushfires wreck havoc around the country in the first week of summer. Minister James Shaw said cabinet “routinely” considers the effects of its decisions on human rights, the Treaty of Waitangi, rural communities, the disability community, and gender. Now climate change will become a standard part of cabinet’s decision-making too, in a week in which the country has being battered by extreme weather events in both the North and South islands. “Decisions we take now and in the future about everything from the places we live, to how we get around, to public health, to how we relate to one another will be impacted one way or another by climate change. It’s crucial therefore that when we’re making big decisions climate change is at the forefront of our minds,” Shaw said in a statement. Ardern says New Zealand on ‘right side of history’ as MPs pass zero-carbon bill Read more He said a ‘climate impacts assessment’ will be mandatory for proposals that are designed to reduce emissions, or which are likely to have […]

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