Renwick orchard owner backs campaign to move climate change out of politics
Jennie Crums parents used to skate on ponds frozen by Marlboroughs winter. Now, the organic orchard owner watches her stone fruit buds soak up fewer frosts each year. She wants action, and last Thursday hosted Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE) at her Renwick farm, Windsong Orchard, to push for a citizen's assembly on climate change. This would take climate change out of New Zealand's political arena and into the hands of the people it affected. READ MORE: * Plan for Citizens Assembly for climate action in Wellington takes shape * New Plymouth mayor says Taranaki ahead of other regions on climate action * Art and climate roadshow tackles the big stuff If global temperatures rose 2 degrees Celsius, it would mean the end of our blueberries. It would change our life. ACE president Phil Saxby was campaigning for both local and central governments to hold citizen assemblies, so climate solutions were not left solely for them to decide. ACE also wanted Central Government to recover from Covid-19 sustainably and declare a climate emergency. Seventy-six per cent of New Zealand is covered by councils committed to climate change emergencies. The United Kingdom held a citizen's assembly on climate change this year in Birmingham, following on from France. The French government tried to put down climate change policies, but realised it had not brought the public with it. It selected 150 people at random from throughout France including people not on the electoral role and brought them together monthly over six months to create policies. These are 150 people who havent got an axe to grind. Theyre not looking for re-election. They're not saying things because that's what's expected of them from their party. So, you get a closer perception of what the public wants. Most proposed policies were accepted by the Government. ACE would host a conference in Christchurch next April to discuss holding a citizens assembly on climate change.