At 1:30 this afternoon 14 supporters of Climate Liberation Aotearoa entered the Cordis Hotel in Auckland to disrupt the New Zealand Cruise Ship Association Conference due to CLA’s two delegates being de-registered the night before the conference, by Jacqui Lloyd, chief executive officer of the Cruise Association.

“When we registered we didn’t hide the fact that we were representing CLA, and as we explained to Jacqui Lloyd, we actually weren’t planning to disrupt. We were keen to learn more from stakeholders at the conference, and to gain more signatories to our open letter urging the Government to close the loophole that excludes international cruise and aviation emissions from our emission reduction plans. If the Cruise Ship Association wished to move beyond the greenwashing of their recent sustainability plan, they’d be joining with us to ask the government to tax and regulate their emissions in the same way that domestic emissions are treated. Frustratingly, there is currently no incentive for the cruise industry to improve on climate emissions” said James Cockle, CLA spokesperson.

CLA supporters entered the conference room atrium with megaphones, and chants that included: Tax luxury emissions, cruise ships pay your way, cruise emissions kill, and regulate international emissions. The disruption lasted approximately half an hour, with all activists leaving the hotel without arrests, once police arrived.

This conference disruption followed another protest earlier today by CLA supporters at Queens Wharf. Passengers of the Coral Princess cruise ship were welcomed to Auckland with street theatre that playfully illustrated the massive climate emissions of the industry, with cruise ship and marine animal costumes.

Last year Aucklanders experienced the Anniversary floods, then Cyclone Gabrielle less than two weeks later. Currently, catastrophic wildfires are again raging in Canada while temperatures in the arctic and the Mediterranean Sea have just shattered all records.

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