Time for Simon Bridges to resign his climate change portfolio
Energy Minister Simon Bridges should resign from his associate climate change portfolio, the Green Party said today.
Following the release of the United Nations climate report earlier in the week Energy and Resources Minister Simon
Bridges, who is also Associate Climate Change Minister, today opened up 40 million hectares of New Zealand’s ocean and
almost 1 million hectares of New Zealand land for oil and gas exploration.
“It’s clear he is more interested in luring foreign companies here to look for oil than taking action on climate
change,” Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today.
“According to the International Energy Agency we can only burn one third of the fossil fuels that companies have already
discovered if we want to avoid dangerous climate change. We don’t need to go looking for more.
“The United Nations report released this week makes it clear climate change is a threat to New Zealand and our way of
life.
“We need climate leadership from Government but instead we have a National Government that is proudly supporting the
industry that is the source of the problem.
“The National Government might be willing to sit back and wait for climate change to do its worst, but the Green Party
is not. We would act to protect our country, economy and environment.
“If Simon refuses to resign as Associate Minister for Climate Change Issues, then he should at least do the honest thing
and change his title to the Minister FOR Climate Change,” said Dr Norman.
Ends