Climate Mission for Submissions - an epic effort!

Our Café Church whanau at Wellington Cathedral of St Paul raise their voices for God’s world.

We just wanted to shout out a huge thank you to all those who took part in the Climate Mission for Submissions over the last few weeks – together, we are raising our voices to make a difference for the biggest issue facing our planet.

Submissions on the Climate Change Commission's draft advice to Government on how to reach carbon net zero by 2050 closed on 28 March, and the voices of Anglicans across our diocese were loud and strong.

Kate Day, our Diocesan Advocacy Enabler, has announced that 776 unique submissions were made by Anglicans and delivered to the Climate Change Commission by Sunday's deadline, not including any that were made via the Commission's website.  "The fact that they are unique makes them more powerful.  They are individually written, rather than clicking a button on a pre-filled submission form."

That number puts us at about 7% of all submissions nationwide, with the Commission's website reporting that over 10,000 submissions were received.  This is a significant increase on our submission numbers from the Zero Carbon legislation in 2019, when we made over 500 submissions.  We know from the Zero Carbon submission process that our voices get listened to and are a huge encouragement to those who form policy. In the Ministry from the Environment, our submissions were stuck up on the walls and on coffee tables because they were supportive and impactful.

Over the next couple of weeks we are hoping to share more of the stories of whanau around our Diocese who took part in the Climate Mission for Submissions, but in the meantime we leave you with the encouragement from Kate that our actions have meant that we as followers of Jesus have “growing influence to speak up for the last, the lost and the least, especially those who are affected by climate change.”