Consultation: Ināia tonu nei – Climate action for Aotearoa

We know that 70% of all carbon emitted is sequestered by the sea. How long can that continue? We don't really know. Thus we should concentrate on our marine environment as our first point of call. We suggest that we make 80 % of our coastline into marine reserves, sequestering carbon from our kelp forests, sea grassed areas, wetlands, salt marshes. There must be no more sea sprawl. Restoration and rebalance is the issue as is returning to a healthy bio-diversity.

We must work with our Pacific neighbours on marine protection and soonest. We must also restore and protect these vital marine spaces throughout the world.

2030 should be the target date. We need to go hard and faster to save our planet. Our small team of 5 million should go hard and faster to be an example to the world. We need immediate action and legislation to action this.

Again, it's go hard and fast. We can't let our children and grandchildren be the recipients of our mistakes and inaction. Let's talk too about humans and non humans. We need biodiversity to return. We need to educate the general population as to why we need an economy of enough. Look at our imports and exports and explore what we really do need to import as a country. We also need to look at our agriculture and our major companies such as Fonterra and our other food industries. Everyone must change and stop looking at our sea and land merely as a resource. It is so much more than that. It is our only habitat. There is no planet B

It is not strong enough. The Carbon credit trading scheme is a sham. We can not continue along that path. We must go hard and fast.

We need to put aside farming land to grown bio-diverse grasslands, hedgerows and mixed native and other forests. No monocultures. Wetlands must be restored all through the country. Look to our marine ecosystems and protect those with huge swathes of marine reserves and no-take zones. Forest of the land and the sea.

We know what we must do. Use every tool to change our carbon footprint. Mainly regulate and legislate to support those changes. Every decision must be viewed in a lens of climate emergency. No new roads, only investment in public transport. No to trucks freighting supplies all over the country. Yes to supporting regeneration agriculture and yes to taxing imports heavily and looking exhaustively at everything being imported in Aotearoa and what is it packaged in and its worth to our country. Do we need it and why?

Your proposals are simply not ambitious enough. Nor are our targets. Technology will not negate climate change. Stopping what we are doing now, may just help. We know that humans do not like change, yet we have proven from the pandemic that we can react quickly when our lives are threatened. Let's educate our people and get them on board. We need massive education programs focussed on this crisis and how we interact with our environment. There is no such thing as away! This will not go away. We need to have a kind, compassionate, brave and strong government to set up down the path to climate recovery. We need to listen to our indigenous people and take on their view on the connectivity of the sea, the land and the people. The time is now. We still have time. We must change for our future and for the future of those who follow in our footprints.

Kia Kaha