Scrutiny of Budget 24 and advice to the Minister of Finance shows the Government is knowingly increasing emissions and shredding climate action.

“The Government's Budget comes at a tremendous cost to our climate. People and planet pay the price,” says Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

“For the first time, we have it in black in white that the Government knew their budget decisions would increase emissions – and that’s only for the initiatives they decided to do the analysis on.

“The Minister of Finance had no answer and no justification for this in today’s scrutiny session.

“The climate crisis is not only a threat to life on earth as we know it, but Treasury and Ministry for the Environment have shown that our commitments under the Paris Agreement leave us on the hook for anywhere between $3 to $24 billion.

“Basically, we either reduce emissions ourselves, or we pay others to do it.

“This Government is budgeting for neither, hoping to quietly push unfathomable cost into the future.

“That strategy can only work so long. The bill for Government inaction is growing and New Zealanders will pay the cost.

“We are running out of time to secure the liveable future we all want and deserve. This Government wants to pretend they’re good economic managers while actively deteriorating the climate necessary for a functional economy.

“The solutions exist. All that is lacking is the political will to people and planet before short-term profit.

“Time and again, this Government shows us whose side they’re on, and it’s not that of regular people, future generations, or the planet we all share,” says Chlöe Swarbrick.

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