Listen Now: 
A Maori climate campaigner is celebrating Auckland Council’s vote to oppose deep sea oil drilling.
Yesterday’s vote was carried 14-7 with new mayor Phil Goff joining the opposition to oil prospecting, exploration or drilling
It follows a similar vote last week in the new Christchurch council, with Kaikoura, Dunedin and Gisborne councils also opposing offshore oil activity.
Mike Smith from Greenpeace says it’s a sign of a health democracy that councils are listening to the voice of their communities who are waking up to the danger of continuing to burn fossil fuels.
"You know we’ve got to do as much as we can and as fast as we can to transition away from these outdated forms of energy and move to a cleaner way of living on the world and if we don't, the spectre of a gloabl catastrophe is in front of us if we don't make those moves and make those moves soon so we are very encouraged by that but we've still got to do more," he says.
The decision by Auckland and the other councils should send a strong signal to the Government as it decides which tracts of New Zealand waters will next be opened up to oil companies.
Follow us on !["p_facebook"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/facebook.jpg")
& !["p_twitter"]("/site/uma/images/story_img/twitter.jpg")
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
RELATED NEWS
