Low Carbon Kāpiti Blog

Firstly, thank you to our guest Jessica Palairet from Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc for her time, presentation and important work.

My thanks to the committee and everyone who contributed this year.

Thanks especially Jean Fleming for playing host and doing our newsletter. Jean is now standing down after many years service to Low Carbon Kāpiti (LCK).

Thanks to our secretary David Yockney for sorting out our constitution and minute taking.

Thank you to Paul Callister and Linda Hill for assisting with submissions and Stephen Blyth for organising this AGM event.

Last year has been challenging – both physically, politically and emotionally – for those that are determined, like LCK is, to respond to the threat of climate change with the seriousness it deserves.

I don’t need to tell you that despite the world surpassing 1.5 degC of warming, record-smashing loss of Antarctic sea ice and the world being slammed by one massive climate disaster after another, an effective, comprehensive response from human beings is no-where to be seen. The politics has once again become polarised and toxic. NZ collectively has ushered in a government which is actively trying to make things worse and is deliberately avoiding taking advice from impartial experts in favour of doing whatever the business interests closest to them ask (like watering down vehicle emissions standards), or what plays well with a reactionary, selfish short-sighted voter (raising speed limits or bashing cyclists).

Around the world, even supposedly ‘progressive’ governments are propping up the continuation or expansion of fossil fuel use. Look at the US, which in the last 4 years has become the number one producer of fossil fuels in the world by a considerable margin.

Here in Kapiti we had a community group ‘CALM’ pillorying the council for trying to plan for rising seas, and who engaged in climate change denial to play down the risks. Their reasons are understandable – to protect their homes’ sale value for as long as possible. But their actions help the community not one jot with preparing for the inevitable.  Without a plan, we will be scrambling from one crisis to the next with even higher costs and more tragedy for everyone. The episode illustrates how the natural human tendency to focus on self-centred, short-term interests leads us away from addressing the big problems that will harm us all sooner or later.

However, just because things are going badly, it doesn’t mean that those with a brain, conscious and the freedom to act are allowed to give up. For LCK, we continued our advocacy for what it is worth. Examples include submissions on:

• The Government Policy Statement on land transport
• Fast Track Approvals
• Draft Minerals Strategy
• Emissions Reduction Plan 2

But we also pivoted to supporting more hands-on activities that respond to the climate emergency, albeit in very modest ways.

Supporting Energise Ōtaki seemed the best way forward rather than starting rival initiatives. LCK supported them with included:

• Bike fix-ups and giveaway
• Helping clean their solar panels at the waste water treatment plant on Riverbank Rd
• Supporting the repair café, with an actual café

Down in Raumati, we also had a bona fide win with the Poplar Ave raised crossing being built, and we celebrated this.

So where to from here?

LCK could do more if there were more of us on deck. But all the submissions in the world won’t sway our current crop of central government politicians to change their environmentally destructive agenda. So perhaps we could continue to expand on EO’s good work instead. And finally, the biggest difference we could make is standing up for counciillors who support climate action at the 2024 local government election. As Asher and myself both work for local government, our scope to get involved in this kind of activity is limited.

LCK is a fully functional climate action and advocacy organisation, but it needs new blood who can support our existing activities, do the things that Asher and I can’t and even take things in new directions. If this sounds like you – let’s talk.

Jake Roos, Chairperson

1pm Sunday 22 September. Ocean Road Community Centre, Paraparaumu Beach.

There are many avenues for citizens to achieve positive climate action. Turning to the courts is one way that is being successfully used to ensure effective action against climate change, including in New Zealand.

Lawyers for Climate Action NZ is a group of barristers, solicitors, and legal academics who use their legal skills and experience to ensure a better future for everyone. They come from all over New Zealand and have specialist expertise in many different areas of the law.

The group have taken cases to the highest courts in New Zealand, along with other administrative bodies. Their work has included challenging the ambition of NZ’s climate targets in the Court of Appeal, supporting a significant win in the Supreme Court in the Smith vs Fonterra case by appearing as intervener, and lodging a complaint against Z Energy for greenwashing in the High Court.

Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Executive Director Jessica Palairet will talk about the background of the group, how the law can be successfully wielded to achieve systems change, and some examples of cases the group have taken.

Arrive for 1pm start (sharp!).
Talk and discussion: 1-2pm
AGM: 2pm

You can help us plan for this event by RSVP’ing: https://forms.gle/YoUaxE9WDxrR8JYJ9

About our guest speaker Jessica Palairet

Jessica is a lawyer and Executive Director at Lawyers for Climate Action NZ. She started her career at the High Court as a Judges’ Clerk, then worked as a junior barrister at a leading set of barristers’ chambers in Auckland. It was at Shortland Chambers that Jessica started volunteering for Lawyers for Climate Action NZ and working on climate litigation. She left Shortland Chambers back in 2022 to move to New York where she obtained a Masters of Law from New York University specialising in international climate litigation, winning the prize for Distinction in her graduating year. She stayed in New York to work as an International Human Rights Law Fellow at the United Nations, before returning to Aotearoa to start work as Lawyers for Climate Action’s first Executive Director and first full-time employee.