100 signatures reached
To: KiwiRail Shareholding Ministers David Clark and Grant Robertson
Get KiwiRail off coal
Please sign our open letter to the government calling on Ministers to get KiwiRail off Coal.
Dear Minister David Clark and Grant Robertson,
Please bring KiwiRail back to Government Department status, so KiwiRail can stop hauling coal.
Your government has declared a Climate Emergency, committed to net zero emissions and to a fossil free state sector by 2025.
Yet, as a State Owned Enterprise (SOE), KiwiRail is forced to haul coal in order to satisfy a semblance of profitability for you, its government shareholders. The quarter of a million tonnes of coal KiwiRail carries through Dunedin, from Nightcaps, Southland to Fonterra's Clandeboye dairy factory in Canterbury every year is like putting a million extra petrol cars on the road.
We need KiwiRail to help build, not destroy, our future economy.
We need to move freight and passengers off the road and on to upgraded, safe, emissions free trains.
From a climate perspective, the SOE model makes no sense for KiwiRail. It is no longer fit for purpose.
Bring KiwiRail back to Government Department status, let's get KiwiRail off coal and get on with building our emissions free economy.
Why is this important?
We are running out of time. Global heating is happening now. This government has declared a Climate Emergency, committed to net zero emissions and to a fossil free state sector by 2025. Yet KiwiRail has to try to make a profit for its' government shareholding ministers by hauling coal. Coal is the worst climate-destroying fossil fuel on the planet.
KiwiRail signed up to the Climate Leaders' Coalition in 2018. KiwiRail has committed to a low emissions economy. They have no moral right to keep hauling coal.