Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to support the motion. In this short contribution I want to tell two stories of climate change. The first was under the previous Government. I was in the Pacific with the Hon Murray McCully. We were in the country of Kiribati one of the poorest and one of the most low-lying countries on the entire face of the planet. There I saw them use the only materials they had at hand which was literally the garbage on this tiny atoll with 60000 people crowded on it. The only thing they could use to stem the rising tides was the garbage and they were mounting up piles of garbage. For them climate change wasn't something happening in decades or centuries and it wasn't something that was happening in the Antarctic. It was a lived reality today. They could see the saltwater seeping up through their plants. They asked me five years ago what New Zealand was doing about climate change and what could I tell them? Here was our Prime Minister at the time on the world stage saying that scientists were like lawyers—you could always get a different opinion. New Zealand at the time was arguing that we were such a small country that our emissions didn't matter but deep down I knew that we had the fifth-highest emissions per person in the entire developed world. How could I tell them that New Zealand didn't have a separation of oil and State and the previous Government was lavishing tax breaks and subsidies on the fossil fuel industry? They were hosting these lavish retreats for the oil companies. They were passing anti-democratic legislation under urgency: the Anadarko amendment. They literally called out the navy on hapū protesters Whānau-a-Apanui. I felt bad because as a proud Kiwi I wanted to tell a story of my country on the world stage that was making a difference to our Pacific neighbours. Now juxtapose that with what we heard this week from our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Here we saw a Prime Minister who is standing for change representing a country that voted to get away from the old ways of doing politics—the crony capitalism the dodgy deals the focus on the old polluting economy. We saw the country vote for political change but also for action on climate change. I was so proud to see my Prime Minister say that this issue—climate change—was our country's nuclear-free moment. Now another story I want to tell happened today at lunchtime out on the forecourt of Parliament. There youth climate leaders were rallying outside Parliament urging climate action. I heard from inspiring young Kiwis with fire in their bellies and a passion for protecting our planet calling for this Parliament to go further and to act faster on the greatest challenge of our generation—climate change. There were kids there from high school who said In class we learn about the physics of climate change but we aren't taught how to take action. What's the point of being in class when we're learning facts but we know we're in the generation which might not be able to use those facts if there's no planet to grow up in?" Now we heard the grumps of course who said that kids should stay out of politics and that kids should be kids. But the science is so alarming that we need to make sure that our kids can grow up and become grandparents. The scientists have said we only have 12 years left to avoid a climate catastrophe. The Met Office in the UK says that within five years we could hit 1.5 degrees. That's why we need a Government that's going to act and not make excuses. It's not going to delay. And James Shaw came out to the rally and said "This year the New Zealand Government will pass a zero climate Act." The Greens and our partners in Government have achieved a 100 percent renewable electricity target a green investment fund and hundreds of millions of dollars to insulate Kiwis' homes. The Government has made the needed but hard calls. Now National used to always say that we would need to transition away from oil and gas but they never had the courage they never had the integrity and they never had the leadership to actually say when that transition would start. Well this Government has drawn a line in the sand that's fair for the workers but most importantly it's also protecting the climate.Now it's a sunset industry and we need it to be. But in New Zealand we're blessed with a wealth of clean cheap renewable electricity generation. We've been called the Saudi Arabia of wind. Every 25 minutes in New Zealand today a new solar system is installed on someone's roof. Every month a new megawatt of home battery storage is added to our grid. Transpower our transmission provider is saying that by 2050 we could see 1.5 million homes being virtual power stations across the country producing their own cheap clean electricity from the sun. We're never going to export electricity but the solutions we develop could be the solutions we export around the world.There's no limit to the export of intellectual property of software of services of the clean energy solutions the world is calling out for. So I want to be able to say when I next go back to Kiribati—I can look them in the eye and say that this was a Government that acted; this was a Government that took the steps needed on the world stage to protect future generations from the greatest challenge facing us. Kia ora koutou."