WELLINGTON, 26 November 2020, (TON): New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government is set to declare a climate emergency to increase pressure for action to combat global warming.

The government will put forward a motion to declare the emergency as a symbolic step to increase pressure for action next Wednesday, the government said as parliament reconvened after a general election won by Ardern’s party.

PM Ardern said “We’ve always considered climate change to be a huge threat to our region, and it is something we must take immediate action on.”

She added “Unfortunately, we were unable to progress a motion around a climate emergency in parliament in the last term, but now we’re able to.”

Ardern returned to power last month delivering the landslide victory for her centre-left Labour Party in half a century as Voters rewarded Ardern for crushing community transmission of Covid-19.

In her last term, Ardern’s government passed a Zero Carbon Bill, which sets the framework for net zero emissions by 2050, with cross-party support in parliament.

If a climate emergency is passed, New Zealand would join countries like Canada, France and Britain that have taken the same course to focus efforts on tackling climate change.

Last week, Japanese lawmakers declared a climate emergency and committed to a firm timetable for net-zero emissions.

On January 1st, 2019, The Climate Mobilization recorded just 233 declarations worldwide compared to the 1,814 today. For the most part, those declarations aren’t binding and rarely include any specific changes in policy, but in some cases, they have bolstered more concrete efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.