STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I welcome the opportunity to debate the Government's decision to declare a climate change emergency. National is fully committed to efforts to address climate change. We are committed to the Paris Agreement and to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, but declaring a climate emergency is nothing but virtue signalling. Symbolic gestures just don't cut it—by declaring a climate emergency when there is consensus on what needs to be done. We need to drive our emissions down. A climate emergency won't change our approach to this. Last year, National supported the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The bill put into legislation a goal of reducing emissions to net zero by 2050, and it established the Climate Change Commission. Lower emissions is the organising principle of the Climate Change Response Act, as it should be. To lower emissions we need an effective plan based on practical sensible solutions, not extreme policies such as declaring a climate change emergency.