As New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took the world stage at the United Nations Action Summit on Climate Change, protesters called her out for hypocrisy back home.

Climate activists backed by the international grass-roots group Extinction Rebellion protested at Rotowaro, Huntly, against the government granting a coal exploration permit on crown land.

The action, at 10 a.m. on Sept. 23 on Coal Haulage Rd., coincided with the opening of the U.N. summit in New York and worldwide protests running from Sept. 20 to 27 to demand action on limiting human-caused global warming and the devastation it’s causing to all life on the planet.

Our message to Ardern, who is a key-note speaker at the summit, is: how can you talk about fighting climate change while expanding coal mining at home?

In August, at the Pacific Islands Forum, Arden said that Australia, a coal exporter, would have to “answer to the Pacific” on climate change.

New Zealand, too, has to answer to the Pacific.