Hundreds of climate protesters staged a sit-in at Christchurch's civic building on Friday, demanding urgent action on climate change and other issues.
The coalition included youth organisation School Strike 4 Climate, Toitū Te Tiriti and the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa. Their numbers were boosted by older protesters.
School Strike 4 Climate Co-Organiser Lucia Campbell-Reeves said they were pleased with the turnout.
"We want the government to listen to our demands. We want to stop these absolutely, as I said, outwardly racist completely environmentally destructive policies that literally benefit no one other than the top one per cent".
The rally was one of 20 held throughout New Zealand.
"We want strong, passionate action from the government to support the many suffering the terrible genocide in Palestine, right now. We want to save the ban on any new oil and gas exploration," said Campbell-Reeves.
Among the group's other demands was a call for councils and central government to count international transport emissions in their climate targets, particularly from cruise ships.
Under the Paris agreement, New Zealand has an international target to reduce net emissions to 50 per cent below gross 2005 levels by 2030, according to the Ministry for the Environment's website.
Minister of Climate Change Simon Watts admitted he shared some of the same frustrations as those protesting today.
But he said they're 80 months away from 2030, and haven't inherited a viable plan to meet the commitments from the previous Labour government.
Rally organisers are promising to keep the pressure on, with more events planned over the next few weeks.
- By Geoff Sloan, made with the support of NZ On Air
