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Webinar programme

1. WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THE REGULATORY STANDARDS BILL? - 16 June at 7pm, Melanie Nelson

www.melanienelson.co.nz | melanienelson.substack.com

Melanie Nelson (Pākehā) is a researcher, writer, consultant, coach and educator on cross-cultural issues. She is also a licensed Māori language translator and interpreter. She specialises in the application of te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Treaty principles to conservation and environmental issues. Melanie is a graduate of Te Panekiretanga o te Reo Māori | Institute of Excellence in the Māori Language and holds a Masters in Māori Language Excellence - Te Tohu Paerua o te Reo Kairangi.

Melanie's podcast, Weaving our Worlds, seeks to foster mutual understanding between peoples in Aotearoa. Her new podcast Coherent, explores current political issues.

Melanie has been at the forefront of informing New Zealanders about the dangers of the ACT sponsored, dull sounding but incredibly important, Regulatory Standards Bill.  The Bill is now before Select Committee and Submissions regarding the Bill are due 23 June, 2025.

Join us for a discussion of the Bill and the risks it presents to equity, the environment, treaty relations, democracy, and law making in NZ.

This is a great opportunity to inform yourself in preparation for making a submission regarding this dangerous Bill.

DATE: 16 June
TIME: 7 PM
ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88634096177?pwd=IBZNx905hBmYWLpjhKFqaXEfLT04bY.1
Meeting ID: 886 3409 6177
Passcode: 990961

Background Material:

https://melanienelson.substack.com/p/new-interview-with-melanie-nelson  

https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/the-dangerous-bill-has-been-updated-but-how/

https://linktr.ee/regulatorystandardsbill

2. Tipping Points & Planetary Solvency - 18 June at 7.30, Professor Tim Lenton

Professor Lenton discusses the evidence associated with climate tipping points in relation to Planetary Solvency.  Climate tipping points are small changes that result in much larger impacts that are accelerating global heating.  Planetary solvency refers to the assessment of the ongoing ability of the Earth system to support human society and the economy.

About the Speaker
Professor Lenton is the founding Director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter and Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science. He has over 25 years research experience. He is renowned for his work identifying climate tipping points. This work informed the setting of the 1.5C climate target; net zero targets and nationally determined contributions.

Tim works with policy makers and businesses to help them assess the risks of climate change and nature loss. He highlights the opportunities for ‘positive tipping points’ that can accelerate change to net zero.

Zoom Link: https://aut.zoom.us/j/91023509243

3. Rod Carr - former Climate Commission Chair for Aotearoa – 2 July

We look forward to a webinar presentation by Rod Carr, details of which will be available soon.

Move to Substack

OCD is moving to Substack!

In 2016 when OCD was first set up, the founders saw the need for an Aotearoa-wide movement of citizens taking climate action into their own hands.  At a time when central government was openly climate denialist, we offered “Our Climate Declaration” as a statement of commitment to action that people could sign up and act on, and many did.

At that time we chose NationBuilder as our email and website platform - it is a great tool for recruiting and organising people working together.

Since then, climate awareness and action has spread widely through all levels of society, and OCD has shifted its focus away from using the Declaration to activate people.  Since Jeanette’s death in 2020, we’ve been holding webinars to explore overshoot, degrowth and Jeanette’s concept of “The Economy of Enough”.

Substack is adequate and far cheaper than NationBuilder as a platform for our email newsletters and our website, so we plan to transfer our email subscribers to Substack for our next newsletter, and to transfer the material on our OCD website to Substack over the next couple of months.

What does it mean for you as our subscriber?  

• Firstly, we want to let you know that we plan to transfer our list of subscribers to Substack for our next newsletter.  Please let us know if this is not OK for you.  It is also easy to unsubscribe from our emails at any time in Substack.
• You may not see much difference in the email that arrives in your inbox.  One difference is that Substack has a function that allows subscribers to comment on the newsletters, and because the newsletters automatically also go onto the OCD’s Substack website, these comments will appear there. 
• The OCD website (www.ourclimatedeclaration.org.nz) will gradually be transferred to the OCD site on the Substack platform over the next couple of months, and will continue to have the webinar notices and recording links etc as before.   We will keep the same domain name and direct it to the Substack site.

We’d love your feedback on this!

A Letter to the ANZ Bank – Financing Bathurst Resources

To Antonia Watson, CEO of ANZ Bank, New Zealand

Dear Ms Watson,

We are concerned that ANZ New Zealand supports the coal mining operations of Bathurst Resources in the South Island. This concern led us to research ANZ’s approach to the major issue of this generation, commonly described as climate change and we found your Climate Report 2023, the first you’ve published.

We read with interest that ANZ NZ is a signatory to the Climate Leaders Coalition. May we remind you of what you have promised to do:

“This commitment includes setting objectives or targets to reduce our climate risk…. And to embed plans across our business to accelerate climate mitigation….As a member of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, the ANZ group commits to transition its lending in key sectors to net zero by 2050.”

It’s more than possible that we don’t have until 2050 to avoid the worst impacts of global heating as glaciers melt, forests are destroyed and parts of the earth become uninhabitable. We are already locked into centuries of heat but we can avoid the worst by urgently and radically stopping the use of fossil fuels.

This means that entities of power such as banks must do what governments have no political will to do – immediately stop financing fossil fuel projects and support instead those which, to quote your Australian CEO Shayne Elliott, “support an effective and orderly transition.”

The Climate Report makes clear you are aware of the important role moneylenders play: they can:

“…make an impact and influence transition to a low emissions future by supporting access to finance to help reduce emissions…”

Your support of coal mining is in direct contradiction to these aims.

Generous loans for industries and businesses to enable their transition to electric boilers would achieve significant emissions reductions.

We would like to draw your attention to the results published in the Guardian (2 May 2025) of a recent survey which shows that “the public desire for climate action is deep and global.” The team of researchers found that 89% of people across the world want their governments to do more to fight global heating.

Surveys here show that at least 80% of those questioned have serious concerns about climate-related disasters.

If ANZ Bank were to publicly renounce financing Bathurst Resources and investing in fossil fuel companies this would bring your Kaupapa in line with that of a large section of the population. The number of fossil-free banks in NZ would increase to five and this would provide a strong counter to the climate-denial thrust of so many of this coalition govt’s actions.

We await with interest your reply.

Our Climate Declaration Team

Move to Non-incorporated charitable status

We are moving to a non-incorporated charitable status. We are doing this because the new rules and procedures around maintaining charitable status are onerous for a small group like ours. This will not affect the ability for donors to claim on any donations made. There will be more on this in the next newsletter.

What you eat significantly impacts green-house gas emissions

Scientists have found that in order to reduce greenhouse gases and global heating, people need to consume fewer meat and animal products and switch to a mostly plant based diet. There is evidence that reducing meat consumption significantly and switching to a plant-based diet is the ultimate solution to reducing global emissions. Animal based foods emit twice the amount of global greenhouse gas emissions as plant-based foods.

Your support is appreciated

OCD’s team needs your help to continue our work. We will continue to develop high quality webinars, articles, and letters to editors etc. to share information about climate change. We value your support and your donation will make a difference.

We are very grateful for automatic payments of any amount, plus occasional donations.  Donations are used to cover any ongoing expenses, including Koha for speakers.

We now have a new bank account name and number - ‘Economyofenough’,
38-9026-0784932-00

We need friends with inspiration, a passion for the future and some time to devote to behind-the-scenes work. We meet for about an hour by ZOOM every three weeks, but in between, we plan, and share ideas and information by email.

Join us, as an observer at our 3-weekly meetings.  Email us at [email protected] so we can send you the link.

Ngā mihi ki a koutou katoa
Our Climate Declaration Team