MEDIA RELEASE: Climate group outraged at new Taranaki drilling

“While we are in the middle of a climate crisis where each and everyone of us should work towards stopping greenhouse gas emissions, Malaysia-based Tamarind Resources is currently drilling for more fossil fuels just off the Taranaki using a gigantic drill rig. It is simply outrageous” says Urs Signer, member of Climate Justice Taranaki. 

“We fought tooth and nail in front of the Environmental Protection Agency to stop this ecocidal madness. But instead of protecting the ocean and the climate, the rig is here in the pursuit of lining the pockets of shareholders and CEOs with millions, while the rest of us are tasked with hosing down a burning planet.”

“The fact that this rig is here now while we are being hit by storm after storm should be cause for serious concern. Storms are becoming more and more powerful as weather patterns become more chaotic, fueled by the petroleum industry’s never-ending thirst for profits. Who cleans up the mess if there is a spill?”

“After drilling in Taranaki, the rig is supposed to head to Otago in October where it will be met by massive community opposition. The message from across the country and across the world is clear: this is a climate emergency! The last thing we need is companies like Tamarind Resources drilling as if it’s business as usual” concludes Urs Signer. 

DATE: 18th July 2019 – for immediate release

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Zero Carbon Bill submission by Tue 16 July

Source: Public Issues Network

This is a very important piece of legislation currently being considered in Parliament. Please take time to have your say.  Here are our key points:

1. We support limiting the global average temperature increase to 1.5^o Celsius above pre-industrial levels as the aspirational goal, with setting up an overarching legislative framework for clear and ambitious New Zealand climate policies as the purpose of the Bill.
2. The Bill should be a stand-alone and over-riding piece of legislation that governs every decision with implications on emissions and climate.
3. The Bill must properly honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
4. The target for New Zealand to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 is too far away. It should be 2040.
5. The targets for biogenic methane emissions by 2030 and 2050 are too weak. They need to be much more ambitious to enable rapid transition to net zero emission agriculture.
6. Carbon offset needs to be capped, e.g. to 30% of total emissions.
7. The 2050 target and emissions budgets must be enforceable.
8. Climate change risk assessments and adaptation need to occur at all levels, with resources provided to regional and local authorities for effective implementation of adaptation plans.

Here’s our full submission.

Submission closed Tue 16 July.  Details on Parliament website.

 

Just Transition Community Conference – 15 March

We have a climate emergency that requires urgent action at all levels. The Just Transition Summit organised by the central government was top-down and profit-driven. To ensure our transition to a low emission society is fit for purpose and socially just, the community must drive it. Our Just Transition Community Conference offers a platform for communities to kick start or reinforce our transition pathways.

Go to the conference page here or watch the conference videos.

The people’s bid – no more oil and gas drilling in Taranaki

Support our petition! Sign here: https://www.toko.org.nz/petitions/the-people-s-bid-no-more-oil-and-gas-drilling-in-taranaki

We – the people of Aotearoa – are together bidding on the 2,188 km² of onshore Taranaki land made available for oil and gas drilling by the government. We are not bidding to destroy the land. We are bidding in defense of the climate!

We all know, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is very clear, that we need radical change now to prevent climate chaos. This is an emergency and we have to act accordingly. The last thing we should be doing now is to look for more fossil fuels!

Jacinda Ardern and Megan Woods – we are calling on you to do the right thing for future generations and rescind the 2018 Petroleum Block Offer in onshore Taranaki.

Why is this important?
To defend our climate, we need to stop handing out oil and gas permits. The government has opened up 2,188 km² of Taranaki land to oil companies. We are saying: NO WAY! Handing out permits for more fossil fuel exploration while the planet is melting can only be described as ecocide and crime against humanity. Fossil fuel companies have known of their impacts on climate and ocean chemistry for many decades, and have acted to increase their biosphere-destroying activities, not transition to clean renewables.

We are reading reports about the collapse of the glaciers in Greenland and the collapse of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The melting of the ice will lead to sea-level rise of several meters. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere keep rising due to increasing emissions despite politicians saying that climate change is a priority. If we are to take climate change seriously – and we owe it to our children – then we need to stop drilling for more oil and gas or digging up more coal now. Handing out permits to oil companies now is like handing out death certificates to our children.

Support our petition! Sign here: https://www.toko.org.nz/petitions/the-people-s-bid-no-more-oil-and-gas-drilling-in-taranaki

VIDEO: Protest in Kapuni – Disrupt the climate criminals

Gas >> Synthetic Urea >> Industrial Dairy = CLIMATE CRISIS!

Halt all Block Offers on Oil & Gas

Demand Methane emission targets are the same as fossil fuel emission targets – no letting Fonterra off the hook again in the new Zero Carbon Act.

MEDIA RELEASE: Earth protectors disrupt Taranaki climate criminals

MEDIA RELEASE: Earth protectors disrupt Taranaki climate criminals

“The business operations happening at Kapuni, in South Taranaki, can best be described as a climate crime scene” says Emily Bailey, a member of Climate Justice Taranaki.

Climate protectors disrupted activities at drilling company Todd Energy, chemical fertiliser manufacturer Ballance Agri-Nutrients and Fonterra in southern Taranaki today to make it clear that the time for real climate action is now.

“We strongly object to the new oil and gas block offers announced last week. All new permits must be halted until the climate crisis is averted. It is completely irresponsible to keep extracting more and more fossil fuels. Until this happens there is little incentive for a true transition away from fossil fuels, as can be seen in some proposals to use gas to make hydrogen power. All renewable energy sources must be completely free of fossil fuels.”

“We also want everyone to see the massive dependence of this country’s industrial dairy farming on fossil fuels for fertiliser, machinery, transport, processing and packaging. The government announced today that the new Zero Carbon Act will split agricultural emissions from fossil fuel emissions and only demand a 10% gross reduction on 2017 methane levels by 2030. We say this is not good enough.”

“We have to stop measuring methane on a 100 year scale and think ten years which is what we have left to stop this runaway climate crisis. On a 20 year scale methane is about over 80 times worse than carbon dioxide.”

MEDIA RELEASE: Climate Justice Taranaki opposes new oil and gas block offer

“We completely oppose the government’s 2018 Block Offer for oil and gas drilling in Taranaki released yesterday. To hand out permits to greedy oil and gas companies while the planet is melting can only be described as criminal” says Climate Justice Taranaki spokesperson Urs Signer.

“We are reading reports about the collapse of the glaciers in Greenland and the collapse of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The melting of the ice will lead to sea-level rise of several meters. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere keep rising due to increasing emissions despite politicians saying that climate change is a priority. If we are to take climate change seriously – and we owe it to our children – then we need to stop drilling for more oil and gas now. Handing out permits to drilling companies now is like handing out death certificates to our children.”

“While there are no new opportunities for offshore drilling in Aotearoa, almost all of onshore Taranaki is still up for grabs, or already permitted for drilling.”

“We need radical and collective change to a low-carbon, circular economy that’s based on the principles of justice, equality and long-term survival. We need to say no to the endless cries of these greedy companies who don’t give a damn about the needs of everyone else on this planet, who count the deadly costs of climate change as necessities for their betterment. Humans have become increasingly addicted to fossil fuels and their synthetic products over the past century, a blink in time that is irrevocably impacting the present and future of humanity and our biosphere. To keep drilling now at the cost of killing the planet is the suicidal agenda of the rich and wannabe rich gone mad.”

Media coverage:

Taranaki onshore drilling block offer opens for tender (Stuff, 1 May 19)

“Radical and collective change” needed to stop drilling in Taranaki (Maori TV,  2 May 19)

Taranaki oil block offer defies climate reality (Waatea News, 2 May 19)