Greta Thunberg Criticises Jacinda Ardern For Declaring A Climate Emergency

Jacinda Ardern won praise in New Zealand and around the world for declaring a climate emergency in parliament at the start of December.

While the Prime Minister made the declaration, she revealed her Administration was committed to creating a carbon-neutral government by 2025.

There was a clear majority for the bill, with 76 parliamentarians voting for it and 43 opposed.

However, one person isn't as happy as Ardern.

Greta Thunberg has called the declaration virtue signalling that won't really achieve much. In a tweet, she quoted an article from New Zealand's Newsroom that outlined what the efforts will mean in real terms.

"'In other words, the Government has just committed to reducing less than 1 percent of the country's emissions by 2025'. Text explaining New Zealand's so-called climate emergency declaration. This is of course nothing unique to any nation," the Swedish climate activist said.

New Zealand's government admits the climate emergency declaration in parliament was merely the start of what they hope will be concerted efforts to combat the changing climate.

The country's climate change minister, James Shaw, has hit back at Greta's criticism.

"Greta Thunberg is essentially pointing out what we already know: that we have a long way to go to narrow the gap between what our emissions are right now, and what they need to be in the future," he said, according to the New Zealand Herald.

"We are working on this as quickly as we can and the declaration of a climate emergency is actually helping - because now every part of government is clear that action to cut emissions is a priority.

"This is what climate emergency declaration should do. It is not an end in itself, rather it signals our intent to do everything we can to tackle the climate crisis and build a better, safer future for our kids and grandkids."

One thing Greta does seem to be happy about is Joe Biden's bid to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement when he assumes the White House.

Speaking to CNN, the 18-year-old is confident a Biden Administration will take the threat of climate change more seriously than Donald Trump's.

"I am more than happy that the US will rejoin the Paris agreement; that is absolutely crucial,' Thunberg said. "We need to communicate the situation where we are, we need to understand that we are facing an emergency.

"We need to change the social narrative around this, and of course as young people, we would really appreciate it if we stopped only talking about future, distant hypothetical goals and targets, and start focusing on what we need to do now."