We’ve had four action packed days here at the New Zealand Climate Leadership Workshop. 25 climate leaders from around the country have come together to learn new skills, share in creating campaign and project plans, and to double the climate movement in New Zealand this year. Here’s a quote from one of our participants, Alejandra Jensen:
“The skills I learnt in the climate change workshop will allow me to be actively involved in creating a positive sustainable world! I can’t wait to be a leader in this vision!”
New Zealand might carry the image of being “clean and green”, and our government has a glitzy tourism campaign that tries to claim that NZ is “100% Pure”, but the reality is per capita, we are one of the greedier fossil fuel users. Although our population is relatively small, we have our fair share of local fights against fossil fuel dependency. Like the massive reserves of lignite in Kosovo, at the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island, lies billions of tonnes of the nasty stuff. The fossil fuel industry – supported by the government – now has plans to dig that up. There’s already a movement in the local area to put a stop to it, and during our workshop, we spent time planning for a nationwide campaign to stop the lignite.
One of the most exciting discussions was about running a Powershift in New Zealand in December this year. Powershifts have mobilised thousands of young people in Australia, the United States, the UK and other places. Our vision is for 1000 young people to come together for 3 days in December from all over New Zealand, and the Pacific, to kick forward the call for a 100% renewable energy future for New Zealand.
We’re not only working with young people though. At the workshop we had a range of ages – because to solve the climate crisis, we need all ages stepping up and powering forward alongside us. Despite the scale of the challenge we face, we’ve got so much to look forward to this year, as we crank this movement forward at pace. We hope you’ll keep with us!
If you are keen to join a climate leadership workshop near you, check out the programme of workshops around the world at workshops.350.org