Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. On Friday next week thousands of schoolchildren will come to the forecourt of Parliament to protest for stronger climate action. Rangatahi will fill the sidewalks and the streets of this country marching to their town centres to ask adults to grow up and do their job. Our job is to protect our kids. We say that we are protecting our kids when we slap R18 labels on things they should not watch they should not listen to and they should not do. We say we are protecting our children when we compel them into the education system and when we punish their bad behaviour. We raise our kids according to ideas that we as a society share about what's acceptable. But our ideas shift and change; the natural laws of physics not so much. While we prohibit children young people from engaging in our political realm with the mainstream wisdom to belittle their engagement as they do not yet know enough about life science does not have an age barrier.The science is clear—the science is clear—yet somehow it's framed as anywhere from boring to hysterical and apocalyptic to talk about the reality if we do not limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. The hare-brained short-term goals of day-to-day politics cannot compute the reality of the end of this world as we know it. And when National Party MP Marilyn Waring brought about a snap election in 1984 by crossing the floor of this Parliament to join with the Labour Opposition my dad was 14 years old and the issue was painted as black and white. It was about nuclear or no nuclear. But with climate change we don't have that simple binary. Humans have already pumped so many emissions into our atmosphere that we are going to have to deal with the consequences and the only decision left is where we cap those consequences. So the question really is: just how hard do we want to make the lives of our kids? What actually happens when our kids and scientists are saying exactly the same thing? When do we look in the mirror and realise that we are the ones standing in the way?If I have learnt anything in my nearly two years in Parliament it's that science and politics are barely ever compatible. I have sat on the Environment Committee as actually every major party in this House has and we have listened to over a thousand submissions from the general public and vested interests on our pathway to carbon neutrality. A whole lot of people want to see greater political will and greater ambition more recognition of the science but they have questioned whether our politics is up to it. The Opposition National Party continue to say that they want the science particularly when it comes to setting out 2050 biogenic methane targets. Well let's get the science and let's be bound by it. Science isn't about convenience and here the science is actually rather inconvenient. In the newspaper today National Party MP the Hon Dr Nick Smith said and I quote It is far too easy for politicians to promise what will happen in 40 years' time when they know full well they aren't going to be anywhere near government then." If anything it would seem that's political consensus: that you cannot trust politicians when it comes to climate action. So let's end the politicising of science. With the zero carbon bill many people have urged the Environment Committee to empower the independent climate commission to automatically set binding emissions budgets on a five-yearly basis. The only arguments that exist against doing this is that politicians ourselves or others in the future might not want to comply with science and that's not good enough. So National here is the opportunity. My dad was 14 years old when Marilyn Waring crossed the floor to trigger our nuclear-free moment. My little brother is twelve years old and nobody should be crossing the floor on this issue which is actually far more clear-cut than one of opinion or one of values. This is an issue of science and here pretty much every single New Zealander has asked us to grow up and stand together. Kia ora."