IPCC Report Shows No Excuses for Failing to Act on
Climate Change
Press release - Generation Zero
Monday 14 April 2014 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Youth climate organisation Generation Zero is calling for strong action to reduce New Zealand’s carbon emissions in response to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The third and final section of the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report focuses on the measures necessary to prevent serious climate change, and concludes that a significant energy transition, involving a potential quadrupling of global renewable energy production, is necessary and possible by 2050.
“The third working group report for the IPCC has shown that not only is a transition to a low-carbon world the best course to take, but that it is possible while improving standards of living,” said Generation Zero spokesperson Alec Dawson.
“The report has concluded that if we stick to business as usual we will be facing temperature increases between 3.7 and 4.8 degrees by the end of the century; enough for today’s youth to be facing catastrophic changes in weather patterns and unrelenting sea level rises.
“But more positively, it also shows that the transition away from fossil fuels is a very realistic one, with low impacts on global GDP if we implement the correct policies.
“New Zealand has the opportunity to play a leading role in this transition if we implement a Clean Energy Plan to reduce fossil fuel use to zero by 2050. There are positive changes that New Zealand could be making in our transport, electricity, and industry sectors.
“At the moment, we are failing to play a responsible role by failing to have a plan, and our Government’s policies reflect this. Our Emissions Trading Scheme is toothless and almost all of our transport budget is going into motorways rather than improving low carbon transport infrastructure.”
Generation Zero is advocating for the creation of a comprehensive plan to transition New Zealand to New Energy. More information is available at their website: www.generationzero.org/NewEnergy.
ENDS