Climate Threat Political Situation in New Zealand

New Zealand Lifts Ban on Oil Drilling

New Zealand is lifting its previous ban on offshore oil drilling, AFP reports.

The bill was voted through by a margin of 14 votes, despite harsh criticism from the environmental movement.

The ban was originally introduced by then-Social Democratic Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in 2018, as a step towards making New Zealand climate neutral. The current right-wing government has argued that the ban has instead led to increased reliance on coal power.
 

Activist: Oil Companies Are Not Welcome Here

The New Zealand government has lifted the ban on offshore oil drilling and promised to partially finance private companies that want to extract oil or gas, something that makes the country's climate activists see red. Stuff writes.

- We kicked the oil companies out. They are not welcome here, and we will make sure they know that, says climate activist Rosemary Penwarden to the newspaper.

It was in 2018 that New Zealand banned the extraction of oil and fossil gas off the country's coasts. The government decided overnight, Swedish time, to lift that decision. Critics say the new decision could violate several international agreements that New Zealand has signed since 2018.