Jacinda Ardern: Everyone is an actor in the fight against climate change

Jacinda Ardern, former prime minister of New Zealand, is putting emphasis on optimism in the movement to tackle the climate crisis – and on the expectation that politicians will do their job. If we accept the destruction, she says, politicians will never act to prioritize sustainability and reversing the effects of climate change.

“I have an expectation bias,” the 44-year-old said during a panel moderated by TIME editor-in-chief Sam Jacobs at the inaugural Climate Leadership Forum in New York City on Monday. “I expect politicians to do their jobs, I expect policymakers to do their jobs, and I expect private institutions to do their jobs. We all have to maintain our expectation bias.”

Under Ardern's leadership from 2017 to 2023, New Zealand introduced a zero-carbon law and she established an independent climate commission and the Centre for Climate Action on agricultural emissions. She also chaired her government's inter-agency committee on climate change and produced the country's first emissions reduction plan.

Ardern pointed out that although New Zealand is a small country with a population of just five million, it is making a significant contribution to the climate movement. She spoke about her trip to Antarctica, where climate change is being felt more acutely than anywhere else on Earth, and where she said she got a “physical picture” of the scale of the destruction. The trip also reiterated her commitment to protecting marine areas and preserving the ecology of ecosystems such as Antarctica.

When asked what priority she would give to climate innovation, Ardern said she “could not understand why there are still subsidies for fossil fuels” – a remark that was met with applause from the audience.

“$7 trillion is going into subsidizing what of course makes a huge contribution [to the] situation we are in, but at the same time it could be an investment that would see an incentive and acceleration [of] “The use of renewable energies should be promoted,” said Ardern.

She spoke to Jacobs and the audience about her perspective both as an insider in politics – she knows well how the public can criticize the speed of government changes – and as an outsider, particularly in U.S. politics.

“If we look at climate and the environment as a playing field, the government can adjust the rules of the game… but it is not the only player on the field,” Ardern said. “The private sector is right out there, either waiting on the sidelines… or in some cases, increasingly, on the field themselves. That goes for our citizens too. We all have our part to play. Let's continue to pull the government along to make sure it is a high-scoring game.”

Turning to U.S. politics, Ardern joked about her inability to convey perspective in just two minutes, but noted that some have seen similarities between her situation and that of Vice President Kamala Harris — both were pushed into leadership positions in their respective Liberal parties when a senior colleague dropped out and nominated them.

“I think one of my observations is that the United States is not alone in this. There is a sense that the world, particularly Western liberal democracies, is polarized and hyper-partisan right now. And that doesn't always feel like the kind of environment in which you can make progress on existential crises like climate change,” Ardern said. However, she noted that several polls, including those from the United Nations Development Programme, show that the majority of people want their government to take stronger action to tackle the climate crisis.

The consumer wants Change, she argued.

“I think one of the things we're confusing is that for a long time we've been telling voters that climate change is going to cost them money,” Ardern said. “That's a false economy. Doing nothing comes at the expense of consumers. … If we as politicians want to continue to focus on improving the lives of our citizens, then we need to take climate action.”

The TIME100 Climate Leadership Forum was presented by American Family Insurance, Cisco, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Fortescue, Iberdola, L'Oréal Groupe, Siemens and GSK.