Climate change action coming through Wellington

A new national campaign that’s inspiring thousands of New Zealanders to help tackle climate change is picking up speed.

The Be The Change campaign is gathering momentum towards a Global Day of Action on 8 December, which will send a message from all corners of the globe to leaders gathering in Bali for the Kyoto Convention.

The Be The Change climate rescue tour arrives in Wellington this Friday and will meet with locally based groups that are organising a climate action festival for the global event.

The Be The Change campaign, launched in Auckland by television personalities Robyn Malcolm and Francesca Price, is spearheaded by Greenpeace, Oxfam and Forest & Bird, but since its inception many community groups and individuals have joined, in order to inspire all New Zealand to lessen their personal impact on the climate.

“Be The Change is about mobilising people and organisations to take action and persuade the government to live up to our responsibilities on climate change,” says Be The Change campaigner Jo McVeagh. “We have the knowledge and we have solutions--we just have to start using them.”

Part of the campaign is a biodiesel bus tour of the country, showcasing off-the-shelf solutions to climate change and inspiring groups and individuals to share their experiences in tackling this problem. The tour kicked off in Bluff at the beginning of the month and ends in Whangarei on December 15th. There will be bus open days in Civic Square in Wellington this weekend and the Be The Change team will pay a visit to Wellington High School on Friday.

The bus runs on biodiesel sourced from tallow (a byproduct of meat production) and everything onboard runs on solar power. It includes an exhibition of impacts and causes of climate change, an opportunity to learn about everyday solutions, and a web centre where people can sign up on the spot to Be The Change.

“There are already many people around New Zealand doing great things,” says Ms McVeagh. “Be The Change aims to capture and showcase these initiatives and show there's a growing movement of people who care about climate change, in order to inspire others to take action.

“The risk is people think the climate change problem is too big. It’s not. Every little bit helps and once you get a whole lot of people making small changes, it really makes a difference. This is an all-hands-on-deck. We're all in this together so we all need to be involved in the solutions.”

Via its website – www.bethechange.org.nz - the campaign has already encouraged thousands of New Zealanders to make changes in their lives and share their experiences with others.

According to the Ministry for the Environment, temperatures in Wellington, the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa could be up to 3°C warmer over the next 70-100 years. This compares to a temperature increase in New Zealand during last century of about 0.7°C. To put this in perspective, the 1997/98 summer, which many New Zealanders remember as particularly long, hot and dry, was only about 0.9°C above New Zealand's average for the 1990s. The region as a whole is likely to experience more varied rainfall patterns and flooding could become up to four times as frequent by 2070.

EDITORS NOTES

Local Open Day: Civic Square, Wellington, 24-25 November, 10am- 5pm.

School Visit: Friday 23 November 9.30 am. Media welcome.

For the full Ministry for the Environment report on the effects of climate change in Wellington, Kapiti and Wairarapa: http://www.mfe.govt.nz/issues/climate/about/climate-change-affect-regions/wellington-kapiti-wairarap...