A conference on our economic future ran for six hours without explicit mention of climate change - and one young environmentalist wasn't letting that go unremarked. Here is the speech by Izzy Fenwick, engagement director for the Aotearoa Circle, that made the great and good at the Auckland's Future Now gathering sit up and take notice:
"Top of mind for me today, especially after the conversations we've been having around Covid and what has been done, is being done and what needs to be done is the similarities and differences between it as our national and global emergency and our other national and global emergency and that is climate change and the general degradation of our natural environment.
"And I was pretty shocked today when the first time I heard the words climate change were from Jade [Gray, of PlantTech Nation] at 2.20 pm, and this is a conference about Auckland's Future Now and what is Auckland's future without a thriving environment, somewhere to live?
"Helen [Clark] also talked about this earlier, the thing that is really front of mind for me is the immediacy of the action that came about when Covid was announced as a national emergency comparative to when we announced - and we did as a nation - climate change as a national emergency.
"For Covid it was 'this is what we are going to do now, as of the next few days: lockdown.' And for climate change it's been about 'we're going to make a plan and those actions will be for the next two years, five years, 10 years and 20 years.'
"And what we did for Covid, we did to save lives, human lives, but what we need to do for climate is not just going to save human lives, and that was important, but what we need to do for climate is going to save the lives of all living things, our flora, fauna, marine life, birds, mammals, everything. And there is no vaccine for climate change or environmental degradation. We can't just jab the planet with something more resilient. In fact we have been jabbing the planet for a long time and we seem to be making things worse.
"And I know that what is needed to create the change in that space is really complicated, but you can't tell me that it wasn't complicated what we did for New Zealand when we went into lockdown.
"One of the things we did do in that space was that it was government-mandated so the government said 'this is what we need to do' and I hear that a lot when it comes to climate change that we need new policy, new legislation and while I don't disagree with that, what are we doing in the meantime?
"And I don't believe there are any business leaders here who don't know the difference between what they are legally able to do to the environment and what is the right thing to do to the environment.
"And just because right now it's legal to treat the environment in a certain way, to use its resources and to impact it, doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do and there have been things in the past that were once legal that now horrify us. It was legal to own people, to have slaves and to treat women, children in a certain way and I believe the way we treat the environment is going to one day be seen as a crime against nature and someone will hold you accountable.
"Whether that person is a judge, or your children and grandchildren standing in front of you, in 20 years time asking 'did you know what you were doing?' what would you be able to say to them?"
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The brief speech as part of a panel late in the day of 'current and future leaders of Auckland' at the Auckland's Future Now conference on Friday received modest applause from the hundreds of business and innovation, community, social impact, iwi and central and local government attendees. But it was an immediate talking point.
The conference's focus was primarily on the nation's vaccination programme against Covid, its border, immigration and travel measures in the future and whether New Zealand's success in containing the virus largely at the border could give the country an advantage in attracting businesses, investment and talent here.
Izzy Fenwick told Newsroom after her session she'd not realised so much of the conference would be "so solely focused on Covid-19 and the recovery. I thought it would actually end up being a bit more of a robust conversation that would include climate change and our environment a little bit more, thinking about what do we want our new normal to look like. I thought that would be a big part of it.
"So then when I didn't hear the word climate change said until 2.20 pm, I was shocked. So then I thought, actually I'd scrap anything I'd kind of thought about saying today and that this what I need to talk about - that we can't ignore the other emergency just to focus on this."
Fenwick's late father, environmentalist Sir Rob Fenwick, co-founded the Aotearoa Circle, which is a grouping of private and public sector leaders committed to sustainable prosperity and reversing the decline of New Zealand's natural resources.
"My background is actually a huge privilege," Izzy Fenwick said, "and it's actually one of my bigger concerns of my generation is that I do understand systemic change and what needs to happen and what's happening in this space and really, a huge part of that is just thanks to the family that I was born into. Those kinds of conversations were dinner talk
"And when I talk to some others in the younger generation there can be such a lack of capability and understanding, and that's a thing I am really concerned about.
"My father was a big believer in that we don't wait for government. If we can bring together the public and private sector to enable or accelerate the decisions the government makes, great, but what are we doing in the meantime?"
After giving her conference speech, did Fenwick have any confidence the leaders in the room would be open to that message?
"I have to, because the alternative is so dire. But it is pretty scary, especially today when there was so much conversation around growth and innovation and expansion without any acknowledgment of the environment, our natural resources, which is the foundation of New Zealand's industry, so I don't know how anyone expects to deliver.
"If this generation is expected to step into the void, the mess that's been made, how does anyone expect us to contribute or play a part if it's not part of our education - systemic thinking on the environment - and we're left out of big decision-making sessions? So there's definitely a lot to be done to be building any kind of hope."
