By Meryl Phair ’21
Environmental Editor
On Dec. 2, at the Parliament House, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared a climate emergency. Stating that climate change is “one of the greatest challenges of our time,” Ardern committed the nation to the development of a carbon-neutral government by 2025. Ardern implored the country to act with urgency, confirming that the motion recognizes “the devastating impact that volatile and extreme weather will have on New Zealand and the wellbeing of New Zealanders, on our primary industries, water availability, and public health through flooding, sea-level rise, and wildfire.”
The declaration of a climate emergency is an acknowledgment by the national government that climate change has produced a global crisis, and that the nation will be making a considerable commitment to providing resources to reduce carbon emissions. Ardern cited several actions New Zealand will take to support this declaration. She included the phasing out of the 200 coal-fired boilers currently used in public service buildings and the requirement of electric or hybrid vehicle use by the government sector, as well as the reduction of the fleet over time by 20 percent. Along with building infrastructure and crafting public policies, the declaration will secure accountability for agreements held at local to international scales, such as the Paris Agreement and the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act of 2019. The motion will also raise awareness and increase education about climate change.
The declaration follows 1,855 jurisdictions in 33 countries that have already declared a climate emergency. The first governmental declaration of a climate emergency came from Darebin, a municipality in Victoria, Australia, on Dec. 5, 2016. Campaigners pushed the declaration forward with a climate emergency petition initiated earlier that May. Similar declarations in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Berkeley, California, followed Darebin’s. On April 28, 2019, the Scottish Parliament became the first country to declare a climate emergency. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon declared a climate emergency on her government’s behalf at the Scottish National Party conference. However, some believe that the Welsh Parliament was the first to declare a climate emergency on April 29, 2019.
Domestically, New Zealand’s Green Party and Māori Party supported the declared climate emergency, but the National and Act parties opposed it. Many experts have stated that the country is alarmingly behind on achieving its carbon neutrality and sustainability goals. New Zealand has seen a rise in total emissions from 1990 to 2018 by 57.16 percent. In the top 43 industrialized countries around the world, known as Annex 1 countries, 31 have seen decreases in total emissions from 1990 to 2018, while 12 have seen increases in net emissions. New Zealand ranks second in this group below Turkey at 160.63 percent.
Despite the formidable future ahead, Ardern continues to make strong statements on climate and set ambitious environmental goals. “This declaration is an acknowledgment of the next generation. An acknowledgment of the burden that they will carry if we do not get this right and do not take action now,” she said on Dec. 2. “It is up to us to make sure we demonstrate a plan for action, and a reason for hope.”
Ardern’s voice joins some of the highest-profile climate campaigners in the world today, including Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Women all around the world, from local to international levels, are critical as to the success of proposed climate action and have emerged as vocal leaders of the sustainability movement. This is in direct contrast to the historical exclusion of women from decision-making processes of land and resource use.
Climate change disproportionately affects women, particularly poor women in developing countries. “The IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] found that gender inequalities are further exaggerated by climate-related hazards, and they result in higher workloads for women, occupational hazards indoors and outdoors, psychological and emotional stress, and higher mortality compared to men,” Verona Collantes, an intergovernmental specialist with UN Women, said to advocacy organization Global Citizen. During natural disasters, which are becoming more severe and frequent as a result of climate change, women and children are 14 times more likely to lose their lives.
Gender inequality has also been linked to environmental degradation. The United Nations Development Programme’s 2011 Human Development Report found that when gender inequality is high, environmental factors such as forest depletion and air pollution are as well. Climate change has been linked to gender-based violence, as increases in natural disasters limit access to resources, and violence against women is used to enforce gender imbalances for control of resources in these situations. Many countries have started to develop gender action plans which combine climate action with policy initiatives for gender equality.
Women also play a vital part in initiating climate action because they are often in the domestic role of providing energy, water and resources to their families. Because of this, they are reportedly more likely than men to be environmentally sensitive and engage in recycling, water conservation and the use of sustainable products, according to The Guardian. In fact, many companies deliberately market sustainable products to women for this reason. In what has been coined by the market research firm Mintel as the “eco gender gap,” many environmentally friendly products are purposefully marketed to women because of stereotypes about their role in the domestic sphere. Misogyny has also been linked to climate denialism, as climate change threatens the dominant masculinity of modern industrial society.
When women are in political leadership roles, they prioritize public goods that will benefit other women, such as access to clean water, infrastructure, sanitation, roads, education and health care. These traits, shown in leaders like Ardern, indicate the possibility of more environmental sustainability in future global politics.