This Content Is Only For Subscribers
Climate Liberation Aotearoa supporters entered the Cordis Hotel in Auckland to disrupt the New Zealand Cruise Ship Association Conference yesterday afternoon.
The organisation says the disruption was in response to CLA’s two delegates being de-registered the night before the conference.
“When we registered we didn’t hide the fact that we were representing CLA, and as we explained to Cruise Association chief executive Jacqui Lloyd, we actually weren’t planning to disrupt,” says CLA spokesperson James Cockle.
“We were keen to learn more from stakeholders at the conference, and to gain more signatories to our open letter urging the Government to close the loophole that excludes international cruise and aviation emissions from our emission reduction plans.
“If the Cruise Ship Association wished to move beyond the greenwashing of their recent sustainability plan, they’d be joining with us to ask the government to tax and regulate their emissions in the same way that domestic emissions are treated.
“Frustratingly, there is currently no incentive for the cruise industry to improve on climate emissions.”
CLA supporters entered the conference room atrium with megaphones and chants. The disruption lasted approximately half an hour, with all activists leaving the hotel without arrests once Police arrived.
This conference disruption followed another protest yesterday morning by CLA supporters at Queens Wharf.
“We were there to greet the Coral Princess and raise awareness of the cruise ship industry’s outsized but under-the-radar pollution,” says Climate Liberation Aoteraroa spokesperson Michael Apathy.
Climate Liberation Aotearoa has three demands of the government: include international shipping and aviation in New Zealand’s emissions budgets and reductions plans, end subsidies for the cruise industry, and ban cruise ships from visiting sensitive natural environments
Inside Tourism reached out to Cruise Association chief executive Jacqui Lloyd for comment regarding the Queens Wharf protests and had not heard back at the time of publication.
