By Sushmita Roy

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is known for championing some of the most progressive laws in her country. Ardern was lauded the title of a “global hero” for her response to the Christchurch mosque shootings — she visited and prayed with the mosque leaders, embraced family members of many victims, and banned semi-automatic rifles in New Zealand immediately. This week, Ardern made history again by getting the parliament to pass her climate legislation bill along with center-right support — a task many deemed difficult to achieve.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern mourns at a vigil wearing a hijab just hours after the New Zealand mass shootings. Credits: appaIoosa/flickr

The landmark climate change amendment, that sets a new target for New Zealand to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050, passed by 119 votes to one on Thursday.

Introduced earlier this year, the bill would set targets for carbon and biogenic methane emissions as well as launch an independent climate change commission aimed at monitoring the long-term consequences and challenges of climate change.

At the time Ardern introduced the bill, the opposition National party considered it to be overly-ambitious and impractical. In fact, Greenpeace also criticized the bill, saying it was difficult to achieve.

“What we’ve got here is a reasonably ambitious piece of legislation that’s then had the teeth ripped out of it. There’s bark, but there’s no bite,” said Greenpeace New Zealand executive director, Russel Norman.

But New Zealand’s decision comes at a time when most countries are far behind achieving the targets set by the Paris Agreement — 197 countries pledged to limit the average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. U.S President Donald Trump began the procedure of officially pulling out of the Paris Agreement earlier this week.

“We’ve led the world before in nuclear disarmament and in votes for women, now we are leading again,” James Shaw, New Zealand’s Climate Change minister, said.

Shaw also said that the bill, which commits New Zealand to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees, provided a framework for the island country of nearly 5 million to adapt to and prepare for the climate emergency, according to the Guardian.

“Climate change is the defining long-term issue of our generation that successive governments have failed to address. Today we take a significant step forward in our plan to reduce New Zealand’s emissions.”

Climate Strike in New Zealand Picture Credit: Nevada Halbert/ Flickr

The bill also emphasizes on reducing methane from the agricultural sector, the largest sector of New Zealand’s tradable economy -- 10% by 2030 and a provisional reduction of between 24% - 47% by 2050.

The new law will bring about landmark changes to ensure that greenhouse gas emission targets are met and that future governments comply with it.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told New Zealand MP’s that they were on the “right side of history,” during the parliament hearing. She said: “I absolutely believe and continue to stand by the statement that climate change is the biggest challenge of our time.”

“Undeniably, our sea levels are rising, and undeniably, we are experiencing extreme weather events – increasingly so.

“Undeniably, the science tells us the impact there will be on flora and fauna, and yes also the spread of diseases in areas where we haven’t previously seen them.”

Jacinda Ardern Passes Landmark Climate Bill With Historic Cross Party Support