Catherine Jeffcoat

Meet the Green Taskforce

Have you posted your voting papers yet? One more day to go – see how your candidates rank on climate change.

Robert Gibb is one of the founders and co-leaders of the Green Taskforce, active out of the All Saints’ Parish in Palmerston North. The Green Taskforce have distributed the Common Climate Network questionnaire to candidates running for Palmerston North City Council, Horizons Regional Council, and also to Mayoral candidates for councils in the Horizons region.

Meet Low Carbon Kāpiti

Votes need to be posted by this Saturday, so check out our local government scorecards if you haven’t already. Today we talk to Jake Roos, founder of Low Carbon Kāpiti.

Climate news sources

Guest article by Caroline Eddy

Recently I heard an interview with Greta Thunburg during which she was asked to name the one thing she would like people to do, to address climate change. Her answer was not that we should all get out of our cars or avoid air travel (although I’m sure she would encourage these too!), but rather she urged people to become better informed. We need to know what we’re dealing with to take action most effectively!

If you’re thinking about how to keep up to date, or looking for resources to share with others, the following are some suggested sources of climate news. Of course, this definitely isn’t a comprehensive list – we’d love to hear your recommendations!

For introductory information, The Climate Reality Project is a great place to start. It has clear and simple resources covering the basics of climate change, including a section called Climate 101, as well as fact sheets on different climate related topics, for example, how climate is impacting public health.

If you’re looking for regular news from a global perspective, The Race to Zero Emissions by Akshat Rathi is a really balanced, interesting read. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter on the Quartz website, here. It follows progress in technologies and shifts in politics around the world, looking at the good and the not-so-good in the fight against climate change.

The Guardian does an excellent job of holding governments and corporations to account over environmental issues, and its weekly Green Light email, which focuses on climate change, is definitely worth subscribing to. You can sign up here.

Climate Home News also reports on climate news from around the world, covering the political, economic, social and natural impacts of climate change.

Here at home, Carbon News is a long-standing, comprehensive source of New Zealand news covering government policy, carbon markets and sustainably business.

Other New Zealand media outlets have significantly increased their coverage of climate change over the last year. Stuff’s Quick Save the Planet section was launched late last year and often features stories about the likely impacts around New Zealand.

Newsroom commentator Rod Oram covers climate change with a business focus, looking at changes required across different sectors of the economy. In addition, Newsroom recently launched a new section on its website called GreenRoom focusing on environmental issues, with Eloise Gibson and Marc Daalder providing good coverage.

New Zealand Herald has also stepped up coverage as part of the Covering Climate Now week last month and Jamie Morton is always readable.

If you’re interested in more specialized coverage of technology, the Clean Technica newsletter comes out daily covering developments in EVs and clean technology with the latest on topics such as batteries, solar panels and storage systems.

And finally, if recent news from the United Nations summit left you feeling despondent about the pace at which nations are tackling the problem, the C40 network is a coalition of major cities around the world that seem to be getting on with the job a bit quicker – it can be heartening to follow their efforts and progress.

Meet the Millions of Mothers

We have been very lucky to work with some fantastic groups on the local government scorecards project. Today we talk to Alicia Hall, the founder and spokesperson for Millions of Mothers.

Let’s Get Welly Informed – choose climate action this election

From Ōtaki to Seatoun, and Mākara to Kaitoke, voters can choose local governments that care about the issue these elections.

Following the enormous turnout of 40,000 people at the Wellington CBD climate strike yesterday, and the crowds of people at similar protests in Kāpiti and the Hutt Valley, the appetite for finding out where candidates stand on climate action has never been stronger.

Voters can choose climate action this election

Media release – Common Climate Network

New Zealanders can strike for climate action on Friday and follow up by voting for local governments who care about the issue.

The climate strike on Friday (27 Sept) takes place just as people receive their local government voting papers. This year, there is plenty of information to help people choose candidates who care about climate action.

Local government scorecards

Our Local Government Scorecards are published below in PDF form for easy download, as well as the original answers.

Growing the network

The power of a distributed network… we’ve teamed up with a lovely bunch of people up and down the country working hard on bringing you local government scorecards. Ahead of the release next week, we’d like to introduce those groups.

Local government and climate change – what can I do?

So local government elections are only a few weeks away. You might have seen an outbreak of hoardings on berms and fences near you, or seen coverage of the candidates in the local paper.

But what does this have to do with climate change?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. Every three years, we elect councillors and mayors who make decisions about things like transport, waste and urban development, which can all make a difference on whether carbon emissions go up or down.

Which councils are covered? Climate change scorecards for local body elections 2019

We are working with a number of regions to make sure the questionnaire is being run by one central point per region. Find out if your region is already covered.