ACT, NZ First policies ignore, worsen climate change – health advocates
If put in power, seven out of 15 political parties will either make climate change worse or do nothing, analysis by a health and climate advocacy group has found. This includes ACT and NZ First, plus five others with no current MPs, including the New Conservatives. OraTaiao, the independent NZ climate and health council, compiled a pre-election scorecard based on parties stances on climate action and health. ACT plans to repeal the Zero Carbon Act , while the New Conservative party has pledged to pull New Zealand out of the Paris Agreement and ditch the ETS . NZ First has been mostly silent on climate issues during the campaign, following a mixed record while in office. OraTaiao categorised silence on a particular climate issue to be the same as a harmful action, group co-convenor and Christchurch GP Dermot Coffey said. Ignoring climate change is a harmful policy. Its a conscious choice at this stage. READ MORE: * National wants electric cars in bus lanes as part of push to electrify fleets * Election 2020: Candidates under 30 on why they're running, what they stand for * Surviving 2020: Not the time to vote with the tribe The group an organisation of 700 health professionals including doctors, nurses and physiotherapists compiled a list of the most effective things the country could do to fight climate change, plus improve health and equality. This list, which includes investment in inter-city electric rail and home insulation retrofits, was broken into eight categories. The parties policies were gathered from their websites and via questionnaires sent to each though only the Aotearoa Legal Cannabis party, the Greens and Labour responded to the survey within three weeks. Four members of the organisation, with no political affiliation to any party, rated the 15 parties policies against the best-practice list. The consensus scores were colour-coded, from red indicating actively harmful (including no policy provided) and orange indicating neutral through to light green and dark green representing beneficial and best practice respectively. Proposing to implement many of the ideas on OraTaiaos best-practice list, the Greens received the highest but not a perfect score. I dont believe a perfect score would be possible at this stage but parties should be outlining a long-term strategy really parties should be giving a 30-year strategy, Coffey said. Were stuck in this three-year electoral cycle. The Maori Partys policies put it in second place. With a stronger commitment to meeting international pledges and plans to decarbonise the energy, housing and transport sectors, Labour outscores National in the analysis. For most categories, National either lacked policies or had outlined plans that would add to the countrys carbon footprint. The lack of policies is the most surprising thing the absence of any real vision and urgency, he said. In the areas of farming and diet, New Zealand should be a world leader, and were not. With climate policies often non-existent on partys websites, the centralised scorecards offered people a bit more information about their voting choice, Coffey said. The organisation also wanted to bring the climate crisis into the campaign spotlight. Theres been very, very little about it. Nothing at all really. Even the Green Party who are top of our score list havent been as vocal as we would expect about their policies on climate change, Coffey said. This is the number one long-term risk to New Zealand. Its a huge area where positive change can happen. Its a huge opportunity as well. Climate change and public health are interconnected, Coffey said. A warmer world will negatively affect citizens physical and mental wellbeing, while many climate-friendly actions and outcomes from increasing rates of walking and cycling to dropping levels of air pollution derived from fossil fuels will boost health. Generally, things that are good for the climate are good for health as well. OraTaiao compiled a similar climate and health scorecard in the run-up to the 2017 election.