New Zealand pledged on Monday to quadruple overseas aid to tackle climate change to tackle a “woefully inadequate” response to the challenge of decades of decline.
As world officials prepare to meet in front of a landmark UN summit on global warming, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Wellington will increase its carbon budget to $930 million over four years.
Ardern said that at least half the money would go to Pacific island states, many of which are deep and inundated with rising seas.
“We need to continue to step up our support for our Pacific family and neighbors who are on the front line of climate change and need our support most,”Jacinda Ardern
“We need to continue to step up our support for our Pacific family and neighbors who are on the front line of climate change and need our support most,” she added in a statement.
Ardern said the money would help communities withstand harmful storm surges, rising seas and worsening extreme weather, which create floods and droughts.
New Zealand’s existing climate action budget is rated “critically insufficient” by monitoring website Climate Action Tracker, while its overall response to global warming is called “grossly inadequate.”
By raising funding from 2022-25, New Zealand’s per capita contribution to global climate finance will equal the UK’s contribution.
Climate Change minister James Shaw says comparatively prosperous countries like New Zealand have an obligation to help vulnerable countries prepare for climate change.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Thursday welcomed Facebook’s move to ban white nationalism on its platforms, but she said more must be done to prevent slaughtering like the #Christchurch mosque attacks. pic.twitter.com/tfURUwD0hn
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) March 28, 2019
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will visit China from March 31 to April 1 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang: FM pic.twitter.com/JEC6gce9qK
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) March 25, 2019
