Stars join campaign to fight climate change

Photo: SHANE WENZLICK

ALL ON BOARD: Lucy Lawless, left, and other celebrity ambassadors at the launch of Greenpeace’s Sign On campaign, which was hosted at Ms Lawless’s Mission Bay home.

A major climate change campaign was launched at the Mission Bay home of Hollywood actress Lucy Lawless on Saturday.

Greenpeace’s Sign On campaign aims to get overwhelming support from Kiwis for the government to commit to a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Celebrities who signed the petition at the barbecue include actress Robyn Malcolm, 42-Below founder Geoff Ross, actor Rhys Darby, The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall and some Shortland Street actors.

Greenpeace executive director Bunny McDiarmid says it is crucial the government commits to the target at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

"We want enough of a groundswell of Kiwis from all walks of life who understand that’s what the government needs to do and will send a strong message."

Ms Lawless says she agreed to host the launch because she wants to safeguard her children’s future.

"There is nowhere else for our grandchildren to go," she says. "We don’t have another planet up our sleeves. We can’t take our three billion profit, get in a spaceship and go somewhere else."

In the six months before the conference the petition will appear in many different places and in different ways across the country, Ms McDiarmid says.

She says scientists believe action is needed in the next 10 years to prevent climate change reaching a "tipping point".

"If we don’t we start moving into a very unpredictable and uncertain future."

Targets need to be agreed upon before politicians start debating how it can be achieved or it will risk being thrown into the too-hard basket, Ms McDiarmid says.

Per capita, New Zealand is among the top 10 countries in the world for emission levels.

To sign the petition go to www.signon.org.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News