Fridays For Future Aotearoa, Te Upoko o te Ika (Wellington, New Zealand)

Under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), businesses have to buy carbon credits that allow them to produce greenhouse gases, which is meant to motivate them to reduce their emissions.

But certain businesses get free carbon credits. They’re businesses deemed to be ‘Emissions Intensive and Trade Exposed’ (that they have significant emissions, but would face a competitive disadvantage if they had to pay for their emissions while similar industries in other countries wouldn’t). Also known as preventing ’emissions leakage’.

In 2021, free carbon credits made up 6.6 million of a total 33 million units in the emissions cap (20% of credits surrendered by polluters that year were given to them by the government for free).

Just four businesses received 75% of these free credits:

• NZ Steel (owned by Bluescope)
• Ballance – a fertiliser company
• Methanex – a fossil fuel company exporting methanol, and
• NZ Aluminium Smelters (owned by Rio Tinto) – making aluminium for export.

These four businesses are responsible for 7.45% of NZ’s gross emissions.

Even if agriculture was to enter the ETS from 2025, it would also receive free credits to cover 95% of its emissions.

That’s why a coalition of environment groups (including Common Grace Aotearoa, Parents for Climate Aotearoa and Oxfam Aotearoa) is supporting a campaign to end carbon credits.

Learn more about the End Free Credits campaign.

Sign the petition on Action Station.

Friday 29 March is Good Friday, so instead of protesting against Fonterror at Midland Park we will be chowing down on hot cross buns with our respective families.

The New Zealand Government has introduced a Fast-Track Approvals Bill in Parliament, which threatens to undermine the vital process of public consultation on large-scale infrastructure projects and resource consents.

The Bill grants unchecked authority to a select group of Ministers, while limiting input from experts, Tangata Whenua, advocacy organisations, and the public.

It would strip away the mandate for adequate public consultation on projects such as:

• intensive barns
• winter grazing
• fish farms
• marine developments and
• dairy intensification.

Learn more about the bill on the Greenpeace website.

Please consider making a submission to fight this bill. Submissions close on Friday 19 April.

If you missed Forest and Bird’s submission Zoom, don’t worry. You can use:

• The Green Party template
• 350 Aotearoa’s submission guide
• Greenpeace’s template

• Environmental Defence Society template
• Forest and Bird’s quick submission form
• a submission guide by Eco Waikato (Google doc)
• a submission guide on the SAFE website
• this Google doc of ideas from Mike Joy

Here are the details for the climate strike in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

Time: 12 noon

Venue: Meet at Te Ngākau Civic Square, marching to Parliament at 12.30pm.

With so much at stake, it’s never been more important for us to stand united for climate justice and social justice. This is an intergenerational strike.

Find out the demands, on the SS4CNZ website.

Read the media release.

Bring your placards, and join us at 12 noon at Civic Square!!  

See details on the SS4C Pōneke Facebook event.

Climate strikes all over New Zealand

Check the SS4C NZ Facebook events page for details of climate strikes elsewhere in New Zealand.

The Pride Parade is on Saturday 9 March. It includes  a parade through Courtenay Place and Dixon Street, a Street Celebration, and the Official Parade After Party.

We’ll be there with our placards and flags. Will you join us?

Find out more about the Pride Parade.

And today (23 Feb) we are also protesting at Midland Park outside the Fonterror office. Come and join us!

On Waitangi Day there will be no FFF protest at Parliament.
Instead, we will be joining the Waitangi Solidarity Hikoi.

This event is organised by the Pōneke Anti-Fascist Coalition. Tangata Tiriti are invited to stand in solidarity with Tangata Whenua and show that we will work to stop any rolling back of Māori rights and progress the Tangata Whenua.

Starts at Pukeahu National War Memorial at 10.30am, walking about 1.5 km.

Find out more on the Facebook.

If you have tried to contact us by email (admin@fridaysforfuture.nz) any time since about Christmas 2023, apologies but we won’t have received it.

We’re currently dealing with some technical problems with the email account and I’ll let you know here when its up and running again.

In the meantime, You can get in touch by:

• emailing us on our temporary Gmail account FFF.Welly@gmail.com
• by leaving a message on our Instagram (fridaysforfuture_wlg)
• or post a message on our Facebook, but we don’t tend to check it as often.

Now we have the most right-wing, climate-denialist government New Zealand has ever had. So we want to be sure they see our protests.

Because Parliament only sits on Tuesdays – Thursdays, from 9 January 2024 we will protest on Tuesdays (not Fridays) at Parliament.

On the last Friday of each month we will also protest against Fonterra at Midland Park.

The protest time remains unchanged at 12.30-1.30pm.

Check our updated protest schedule. 

Unfortunately, we have had to cancel today’s protest due to lots of us not being able to make it.

Please check back later for an updated protest schedule.