Kia ora e hoa mā,

Last month, we presented at the Fast Track TTRL conference in Te Hāwera, alongside iwi, hapū, local fishermen, councils, Ngā Motu Marine Reserve Society, KASM (Kiwis Against Seabed Mining), Forest & Bird, Greenpeace and other environmental groups. It was heartening to hear the plea from iwi, hapū and others to protect the moana and the taonga that it provides. Some of the presentations are here.

There will be a Hearing on 26 November in Auckland for the Expert Panel to hear discussions strictly around questions of law. If you are keen to follow the process, the Fast Track TTRL website has fairly up-to-date details.

More wrecking balls from the government

As if it is not bad enough, the coalition government has announced that it’d amend the Fast Track Approvals Act under urgency before Christmas. Why? To give ministers more influence over decisions and quicken the process…

Having just participated in the Fast-Track conference on TTRL, we can see how severely restricted the panel is in what it may consider to properly assess the application, despite the overwhelming environmental, social and economic evidence and community opposition against the project. This latest amendment of the Fast Track Act is another affront to democracy.

Also on the 4 Nov, plans to amend the Climate Change Response Act were announced. The changes would further weaken the Emissions Trading Scheme and requirements on emissions reduction plans (ERPs), national adaptation plans etc. The Climate Change Commission will no longer be required to provide advice to the government on ERPs and public consultations won’t be required. This gutting of the Zero Carbon Act crashes the hard-won bipartisan climate consensus achieved six years ago. The Lawyers for Climate Action has a detailed explainer.

Two days later, the government “broadened the scope and terms of a $200 million commercial co-investment fund designed to boose New Zealand’s constrained gas supply and reduce perceptions of sovereign risk…”

All the above confirms that this government has no social or environmental conscience at all. It is not fit to govern!

Invitation to our November Workshops and Public Meeting

As the government continues to swing its wrecking ball on environmental protection, climate action, social justice and democracy, we focus our energy on building community understanding of complex, interlinked issues and fostering collective action. Ahead of the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change – COP30 (10-21 Nov 2025), Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged the inconvenient truth that we have failed to avoid an overshooting above 1.5C in the next few years. Passing that will trigger “tipping points, be it in Greenland, or western Antarctica or the coral reefs”, with “devasting consequences” for the world.

As delegates negotiate deals and waste precious time and resources at COP30 in Belém, we offer four public events in Taranaki this month to empower our communities.

The three workshops (13, 19, 21 Nov) follow the Climate Fresk format, an interactive game with cards that make a ‘fresk’ or a mural-like fresco once completed.  Each card represents an element, a cause, or a consequence of climate change. In teams, guided by your facilitator, you are encouraged to find the cause-effect relationship between the different components of climate change. Collective intelligence will get you from one deck of cards to the next, further your understanding and inspire action!

At the public meeting (20 Nov), there will be a speakers panel and open forum. We will discuss how we, as communities, can work together being farmers, public servants, mana whenua, environmentalists and everyone else, to adapt to climate change and reduce our emissions, while growing a healthy economy and vibrant communities.

Do come along if you’re in Taranaki.

REGISTER via Humanitix for any of the above events.

We are also more than happy to organise similar workshops on request at different locations, so get in touch.

Fridays for Future pickets Taranaki

BP and Caltex (Chevron) have used Israeli’s invasion of Gaza to gain access to oil and gas resources located off the coast of Gaza. As such they are complicit in, and profiting from, the genocidal war against the people of Gaza.

Together with Palestinian Solidarity Taranaki, we will continue with our presence outside BP (71 Powderham St.) on most Friday mornings (8:15-9:15), to draw attention to this and to call for an end to fossil fuel exploration. Hope to see some of you.

Kia hauora, kia kaha, kia manawanui…

Nā,

The team of Climate Justice Taranaki