The day we took action over climate change

by Sage Pettus (12)

On Friday, March 15, around a million students worldwide went on strike from school to protest the lack of action on climate change.

New Zealand took part in this, with protests in all large cities, and some small towns.

In Wellington, around three thousand young people and our supporters gathered in Civic Square, then marched to Parliament, where we were met by three MPs (James Shaw, Grant Robertson, and Nicola Willis).

There were speeches made by student representatives, then a question and answer period with the MPs.

The Kiwi students’ main demand was that the New Zealand Government do more immediately to restrict global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees. We should do this by:

• Passing an efficient Zero Carbon Act that installs a long term plan for NZ to be carbon neutral by 2050.

• Having climate change in mind when future decisions are being made.

• Establishing transparent courses of action so the public can view our progress and hold the government to account.

• Stopping all extraction of fossil fuels at once, and investing in clean and sustainable energy immediately.

• Managing emissions from agriculture - there is currently no plan for this, even though it makes up nearly half of emissions here.

We will continue striking until our worries and demands are heard, and action is being taken to stop climate change.

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