Foreign Minister Winston Peters attending the Pacific Islands Forum opening ceremony with adviser Michael Appleton in Tonga on Monday. Photo / Adam Pearse
Foreign Minister Winston Peters attending the Pacific Islands Forum opening ceremony with adviser Michael Appleton in Tonga on Monday. Photo / Adam Pearse
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is denying claims he questioned humanity’s role in climate change after comments he made while in Tonga at the Pacific Islands Forum.
Peters, asked about climate change yesterday, given its importance to the forum and the region, spoke of how the climate had changed for “thousands of years”, citing floods in the same area in Hawke’s Bay that saw extensive flood damage in Cyclone Gabrielle.
“There’s always climate change. Our job is to build, as much as we can, the resilience against it.”
A common argument for those who denied humans caused the warming climate was to state the climate had changed naturally, independent of humanity.
Asked if he believed the climate changed naturally and not impacted by emissions, Peters said: “No but what I’m saying to you was there have been massive changes over the millennium.”
Foreign Minister Winston Peters spent a few days in Tonga ahead of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's arrival. Photo / John Tulloch
Labour leader Chris Hipkins had been very critical of Peters’ comments, which he believed amounted to questioning humanity’s role in climate change.
“Winston Peters has embarrassed New Zealand and I think Christopher Luxon will get a lot of kickback when he arrives at the Pacific Island Forum as a result of that.”
Peters, speaking from Wellington today, claimed he’d been misquoted and argued he was trying to articulate that many past generations had been concerned about the changing climate.
Asked if he believed human activity influenced climate change, Peters said: “Of course, when has anybody ever denied it?”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who arrived in Tonga late yesterday, believed he and Peters shared the view that climate change was an “existential threat”, particularly in the Pacific.
“There’s no doubt about this and it’s not in dispute.
“We are very, very cognisant the climate is a major issue in the region. The question is how you move from the words into some action because that’s what’s needed.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at a Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Tonga. Photo / Jake O'Flaherty
Climate change and its consequences had dominated discussions at the forum in Tonga and had been amplified by the presence of United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.
In several speeches to Pacific leaders, Guterres urged developed countries making the primary contributions to global emissions to cease practices such as oil and gas mining.
New Zealand was included on that list, given the Government sought to introduce legislation this year to repeal the 2018 ban on oil and gas exploration.
Luxon today maintained Guterres was directing his messages to G20 countries, which had higher emission profiles than New Zealand.
He also referenced his goal to double New Zealand’s renewable energy stocks.
Luxon today held several bilateral meetings with Tongan Prime Minister Hu’akavameiliku, committing New Zealand’s support for helping rebuild Tonga’s parliament and a second undersea cable.
Later in the morning, he spoke with Samoa’s PM, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, in which he expressed the country’s condolences regarding a recent crash that left two Samoan seasonal workers and their uncle dead and one worker, also a family member, critically injured in hospital.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting with Samoa PM Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa in Tonga at the Pacific Islands Forum. Photo / Jake O'Flaherty
Ahead of his media stand-up, it was understood Luxon had another meeting but his office declined to say who was involved, claiming the meeting was private.
In the afternoon, Luxon attended an event at Teufaiva Stadium to celebrate New Zealand spending $110,000 to support women’s rugby in Tonga.
He was expected to have further bilateral meetings with the Solomon Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
