New Zealand's Zero Carbon bill, aimed at reducing the country's greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 as part of its Paris Agreement commitments, was passed almost unanimously on Thursday, making it a world leader in setting climate change targets into law
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2019) New Zealand's Zero Carbon bill, aimed at reducing the country's greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 as part of its Paris Agreement commitments, was passed almost unanimously on Thursday, making it a world leader in setting climate change targets into law.
The legislation was introduced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in May and aims to introduce targets for carbon and methane emissions and to establish an independent climate change commission to address the "long-term challenge" of climate change. On Thursday, it was passed in a 119-1 vote in a show of cross-party support for the bill.
"Climate change is the defining long-term issue of our generation that successive governments have failed to address. Today we take a significant step forward in our plan to reduce New Zealand's emissions," Climate Change Minister James Shaw said.
Ardern echoed Shaw's enthusiasm for support for her bill, saying New Zealand was "on the right side of history."
The bill will create a framework for New Zealand, a signatory of the Paris climate accord, to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) as part of its commitments under the agreement.
The Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, aims to keep the global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius by governments committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A total of 197 parties to the accord, including Russia, have signed the agreement and 187 of them have ratified it. Until now, however, no country had passed any concrete laws to adhere to the deal.
