GRETA THUNBERG : NEW ZEALAND'S 'CLIMATE EMERGENCY' IS 'NOTHING UNIQUE'

Greta Thunberg has criticised the Labour Government's 'climate emergency' declaration as meaningless.

IN 2019 Climate Change Minister  and Green co-leader James Shaw attempted to bask in the reflected glow of Greta Thunberg when he told participants in the School Strike for Climate that he shared the goals of the celebrated young Swedish activist. In an open letter he declared:

'As Greta Thunberg said, 'the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is wake up and change.' And she’s right.'

What Shaw didn't say and continues to avoid acknowledging,  is that Thunberg is fundamentally opposed to any notion of a 'green capitalism', which James Shaw and the Green Party continue to peddle. Thunberg has consistently said (as she does in the above video) that to effectively tackle climate change we most change the very economic system that continues to plunder the planet. While Thunberg says that capitalism is the enemy, James Shaw told Parliament this year that it was  'people' - you and me,folks -who are to blame for climate change.

A year later Greta Thunberg's fundamental opposition to the corporate-friendly approach of the Labour Party and its Green Party ally to climate change has surfaced in the social media. On Twitter she has taken a critical swipe at the Labour Government's inept and meaningless 'climate emergency declaration ' describing it as 'nothing unique to any nation' because the Government was only committing to reducing less than one percent of the country's emissions by 2025.

After the climate emergency motion was passed In Parliament various Green MP's rushed to Twitter and Facebook, boasting that the declaration was an important historic milestone. James Shaw tweeted that it 'was not just a symbolic declaration'.

Clearly Greta Thunberg disagrees. Its worth noting that Thunberg is a strong supporter of the Green New Deal, an initiative that the Green Party has failed to take up in New Zealand because it runs counter to its own market friendly narrative.