The PSA, which is New Zealand’s largest union with over 80,000 members, launched the Vote Climate campaign this month in a bid to make climate action an election issue when Kiwis vote for local body candidates in October.

The campaign brings together 30 different groups including unions, climate action, public transport, walking groups, and cycling groups, all lobbying politicians to invest in reducing the country’s CO2 emissions from transport.

Brendon Lane, Vote Climate campaign coordinator, says the union wanted to form an umbrella organisation for groups with this shared goal. “We were looking for a way to come alongside a whole lot of different groups with common goals to amplify what we were saying rather than saying the same thing with different voices.”

He says the campaign is focusing on transport, which produced 27% of the country’s CO2 emissions in 2018, because it has clear links to local government and the democratic process. “The ability of the average person to influence agriculture emissions is limited compared to the transport space. It's something that people can see a change in really easily, versus reducing synthetic nitrogen fertiliser emissions, or breeding a cow that doesn’t burp.”

The campaign is asking local government candidates to commit to four goals:

• More frequent public transport services in cities and towns, and between centers and across regions.

• More affordable public transport - Increased trialling of reduced fare or free services to encourage and broaden uptake.

• Investment in infrastructure to make cycling and walking safer and easier.

• More inter-city and regional public transport - Investing in train and bus services that make travel between cities, towns and regions easier.

The campaign will survey all candidates asking for a “yes” or “no” about the campaign's goals, plus the option to add a brief statement, all of which will be published on the Vote Climate website. The campaign is aiming to give voters a clear picture of what candidates stand for - as well as weed out any ‘climate deniers’. “If candidates don’t respond they will be listed as not supportive,” Lane says.

PSA members have been more vocal than usual in support of the campaign, according to Lane. “I usually get ten or so emails from ‘Grumpy in Masterton’ and ‘Disillusioned from Taupo’, and I got those. But this time I also got people saying ‘this is really great’ and ‘why haven’t we done this before?’”

The campaign is also aiming to improve voter engagement, particularly from younger voters. Lane says if the campaign is a success they may expand the campaign to focus on the general election.

“As a union we’ve committed to a just transition, whatever that means. We are investing more time and resources into this space.

“We need to start putting pressure on politicians to be brave to make those decisions. We just don’t have the time any more. We need to act very quickly to have a chance at reducing emissions.”