What is a climate emergency?

New Zealand’s government will decide next week if a climate emergency should be declared in the country or not.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

In 2019, the Oxford dictionaries declared “climate emergency” to be the word of the year, a word that reflects “the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance”.

It defines climate emergency as “a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it”.

Some of the countries that have declared a climate emergency in recent years include the UK, Portugal, Canada, France and, most recently, Japan.

Last November, the parliament of New Zealand passed the Zero-Carbon Act, which commits New Zealand to zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner.