Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern moved a motion Wednesday in the House of Representatives to declare a climate change emergency in New Zealand. The government of NZ assured that its public sector would become carbon neutral by 2025 as it declared a climate emergency on Wednesday. This was a symbolic move that critics said was needed to be backed with greater actions to reduce emissions. In the notice of the motion released, Ardern said that the move recognizes the “devastating impact that volatile and extreme weather will have on New Zealand and the wellbeing of New Zealanders”.

The symbolic move comes in the wake of increasing human and economic impacts on the environment and the necessary actions required to protect the global commons for future generations. Speaking in the parliament, Ardern said that the signs of climate change were clear and New Zealand had to acknowledge the threat. She called climate change the “nuclear-free moment of our generation”.

In her first term she had passed a Zero Carbon Bill, which sets the framework for net-zero emissions by 2050 with an exemption for farming and had banned new offshore oil and gas exploration.

The government on Wednesday promised that the public sector will achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. Government agencies would have to measure and report emissions and offset those they cannot cut by 2025. Government further said that the programme will be backed by a NZ$200 million ($141 million) fund to finance replacing coal boilers and help purchase electric or hybrid vehicles.

Nearly half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane.

Jacinda said that the climate emergency declaration was based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s findings that to avoid more than 1.5 degree Celsius rise in global warming, emissions would need to fall by around 45% from 2010 levels by 2023 and reach zero by around 2050. “This declaration is an acknowledgement of the next generation; an acknowledgement of the burden that they will carry if we do not get this right and do not take action now,” Ardern told lawmakers in parliament. After an hour-long debate, a majority of parliamentarians voted in favour of the declaration. The main opposition, National Party voted against it saying that it was nothing but “virtue signaling”.

Greenpeace welcomed the declaration but challenged the government to follow through with policy and action.

“For Jacinda Ardern’s climate emergency declaration to be more than just words, that means tackling New Zealand’s largest source of climate pollution: agriculture,” said Greenpeace agriculture and climate campaigner Kate Simcock.

The declaration states that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity and promises a commitment to minimize global warming. It says that climate change will have a devastating impact on New Zealand through flooding, wildfires, sea-level rise, and water availability.

Ardern said that climate change was an important consideration in rebuilding the economy from the downturn caused by the coronavirus, and it was important to “build it back in a sustainable way, with a focus on carbon neutrality.” Opposition climate change spokesperson Stuart Smith said that the declaration was hollow and lacked substance.

“Today’s performance from the government was a triumph of politics over practical solutions, and of slogans over substance,” said another opposing lawmaker, David Seymour.

Ardern has previously announced plans for the nation to plant 1 billion trees, phase out offshore oil and gas exploration, and to make the electricity grid run based on 100% renewable energy by 2030.

The government last year passed a bill for the country to become carbon neutral by 2050, although it carved out some exemptions for farmers, who bring in much of the country’s foreign exchange earning.

With this, New Zealand joined 32 other countries that have declared climate emergency, including Britain, Canada, Ireland, France, and Japan. Britain’s parliament was the first to declare a climate emergency, passing the motion in May last year, followed by Ireland.

The author is a student member of Amity Centre of Happiness