Make your submission here
Submissions close: 11:59pm Tuesday October 1st 2024
To make your submission:
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[briefly introduce yourself & maybe why submitting on this matters to you]
I am submitting in full opposition to the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill. Pursuing the proposed reversal of the 2018 ban, which limited new petroleum exploration permits outside onshore Taranaki, would be a betrayal of both our tīpuna (ancestors) and uri whakaheke (descendants). One of the bill's purposes is to “make fossil fuel exploitation more attractive.” However, nothing can make fossil fuels attractive—they are at the core of an industry that will be single handedly responsible for environmental planetary collapse.
As the United Nations warned in May 2024, “the world is on the verge of a climate abyss.” Since 1970, the Earth’s temperature has surged faster than in any comparable period, and the oceans are heating at a rate not seen in at least 11,000 years. We are at a critical point in human history. [briefly mention how this makes you feel]
Fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas—are the largest contributors to the climate crisis, responsible for nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions (IPCC; United Nations). Even natural gas, still a fossil fuel, accounts for a fifth of global carbon emissions. Undoing the oil and gas exploration ban could lead to an additional 51 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2050 (Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment, 2024).
When fossil fuels are burned, they release large amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat in our atmosphere and drives global temperatures upward. The average global temperature has already risen over 1°C. Warming beyond 1.5°C will escalate sea level rise, increasingly frequent extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, species extinction, food insecurity, famine, disease, war, and poverty for millions worldwide (United Nations; IPCC; The Guardian).
In light of this climate emergency, the International Energy Agency has made it clear: expanding fossil fuel extraction is unnecessary and incompatible with the 1.5°C target. The IPCC’s latest report describes the situation as "a code red for humanity." UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed this, stating, “the alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable. We must act decisively now to keep 1.5°C alive.” The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels estimates that extracting the existing fossil fuel reserves would result in emissions seven times greater than the world’s remaining carbon budget. No amount of global temperature rise is safe, and people are already dying from climate change.
Despite overwhelming evidence and the rise in extreme, deadly weather events across the globe, this government continues to ignore the realities and consequences of fossil fuel expansion. The Crown Minerals Amendment Bill represents an act of violence against our communities and future generations as we collectively stand on the precipice of ecological and planetary collapse.
Around the world, including here in Aotearoa, people are increasingly vulnerable to cascading storms, heatwaves, floods, and droughts. By 2050, approximately 216 million people, mostly from developing countries, could be forced to flee these impacts unless radical action is taken (World Bank, 2021). As much as $23 trillion could be wiped from the global economy (Swiss Re Institute, 2021).
[expand upon a personal experience/story/emotion etc you have with the climate crisis]
The message is clear: we urgently need a concrete, binding plan to halt the expansion of new coal, oil, and gas projects and to manage a global transition away from fossil fuels. Phasing out fossil fuels fast enough to avoid catastrophic climate change while ensuring equity and a just global transition is challenging, but it is entirely possible. It will require radical commitment, careful planning, international coordination and sheer political will.
The Crown Minerals Amendment Bill has no place in the midst of the climate crisis. This bill must be thrown out in its entirety and instead, more radical action must be taken by this government to reduce our carbon emissions and justly transition ourselves away from fossil fuels.
For more advice and a roadmap for our transition away from fossil fuels, we recommend you join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty - more details can be found here https://fossilfueltreaty.org/