Tag: 10:10

10:10NZ campaign launches

New Zealand now has its very own Ten-Ten campaign, part of a global effort to promote personal commitments to emissions reductions. Based on the hugely successful 10:10 campaign launched in the UK last year by New Zealander Lizzie Gillett (producer of The Age Of Stupid), the NZ campaign aims to get as many people as possible to commit to making a 10% reduction in their carbon emissions over one year, starting this year. Here’s Gillett on the scheme’s impact in the UK (from the press release):

In the UK, the 10:10 campaign aims to cut carbon emissions by 10% during 2010. It has amassed huge cross-societal support including Adidas, Microsoft, Tottenham Hotspur Football club, 55,000 individuals, 1,500 schools, and a third of local councils (representing 25 million people), all the cabinet and the Prime Minister.

I suspect the chances of getting John Key to sign up are slim, but if enough people demonstrate a willingness to make cuts it should show our politicians that this is not an issue that can be ignored or where action can be delayed. Cutting your personal emissions by 10% in a year is an easily achievable target for most people, as 10:10NZ spokesman Rhys Taylor explains:

It’s an easy figure to handle – for example 10% represents one of 10 weekday commuter journeys, either to or from work, switched from driving a car to walking or cycling. Walk or cycle both there and back one day in five to knock an easy 20% off fuel demand for that week’s commuting. If a bus traveller or car-sharer, your journey still requires fuel consumption, but significantly less per person than driving alone. Car sharing or using a bus to go both in and back on one day in five would achieve the passenger’s 10% drop in commuting fuel. That’s not hard to do, is it?

There’s more information on how to make cuts at the 10:10NZ site, including links to the interesting Project Litefoot. The campaign is currently focused on personal and household commitments, but there is also plenty of scope for businesses to join. And there’s the obligatory Facebook page.

Hot Topic is happy to endorse and support 10:10NZ: more news as the campaign develops.

10:10 on its way to NZ

The 10:10 emissions reduction campaign launched in the UK earlier this year is likely to arrive in New Zealand soon — perhaps before the end of the year. Speaking on Chris Laidlaw’s RNZ Sunday Morning show [mp3], organiser Daniel Vockins confirmed that discussions were underway with interested parties(*) in NZ, and promised that if 1,000 New Zealanders signed up at 1010global.org, they’d launch before Christmas. 10:10 is the brainchild of Age Of Stupid producer Franny Armstrong. Individuals and companies make personal commitments to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 — giving them something practical to do while the world haggles over longer term and larger targets for cuts. In the NZ context, a 10:10 campaign is expected to work well alongside existing efforts such as Greenpeace’s 40 by 20 Sign On campaign, and 350.org’s longer range commitment, but will send a very direct message to a government seemingly locked in to unambitious targets. If John Key won’t go to Copenhagen, will he sign up to 10:10? Britain’s Conservative leader David Cameron and his entire front bench already have.

(*) Including me…

10:10 trumps 50:50

Imagine this: the prime minister and his entire cabinet, the opposition front bench and the largest other party in Parliament all sign up to make personal emissions cuts of 10% in 2010. Not 10% in 10 years, — 10% next year. Not in NZ, sadly, but that’s what has just happened in Britain. The 10:10 campaign, created by Age Of Stupid producer Franny Armstrong and her team, was launched last Tuesday. Armstrong is impressed by the rapid response:

“It’s amazing that within 48 hours of the campaign’s launch, the leaderships of the three main political parties have committed to cut their 10%. Who said people power was dead? These politicians clearly recognise that each person in Britain must start cutting their emissions as part of a national war-effort-scale response to the climate crisis.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s government flounders around trying to find support to water down the emissions trading scheme. Rod Oram in today’s Sunday Star Times considers National’s options:

..almost anything is possible because National has dissembled, prevaricated and otherwise failed to reveal its true beliefs on climate change in opposition and so far in government.

Time for a 10:10 campaign in New Zealand. Labour, the Greens and the Maori Party should jump to join in. Rodney and ACT are obviously a lost cause, but if enough people signed up — the momentum in Britain has been impressive, and the Greenpeace Sign On campaign here has done well — the pressure on Key and Smith might force them to do the right thing. But I won’t be holding my breath.