Climate Change Minister James Shaw told the COP27 UN climate conference that young people were demanding world leaders take action on climate change. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The world is facing a stark choice, Climate Change Minister James Shaw told the COP27 UN climate conference overnight, and the time to make a decision is running out.
Ministers like Shaw have taken over negotiations during the second half of the two-week conference in Egypt, in an attempt to try to reach agreements.
They have a significant job ahead of them trying to hash out agreements on major issues. Negotiators have handed to their political bosses more than a dozen threads of work - more than usual - including on climate finance, adaptation, and carbon markets.
International Institute for Sustainable Development's Earth Negotiations Bulletin, which provides coverage of what's happening inside negotiation rooms, said there was a backlog of issues.
Meanwhile, a UN body said inadequate progress since last year's meeting and current policies put the world on a path to substantially overshoot global temperature warming goals.
Shaw said young people were demanding world leaders take action on climate change because "they know, as do we, that a better world is possible".
"They know that we have the means at our disposal to create it. They know that all we lack is the political ambition and the will to make it happen."
Time to act was running out, but it came down to a simple choice, he said.
"Do we want a world that is defined by the ravages of climate change, or do we want a world that is cleaner, fairer, safer, and more productive than it is today?"
Shaw used his speech to tout New Zealand's climate plans, citing the emissions reduction and climate adaptation plans announced this year.
He said $US3 billion of revenue from the emissions trading scheme would be used to fund projects to get to net zero emissions by 2050.
$15 million for adaptation, but not from new funding
Shaw has set aside funding for developing countries to adapt to climate change.
The $15m commitment comes from the $1.3b announced last year for climate finance, which is funded from revenue from the emissions trading scheme.
The government said last week it was ring-fencing $20m for loss and damage from the same fund.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced the issuing of $3b in green bonds to finance public sector climate change and environmental projects in Aotearoa.