The Government has confirmed it will rewrite New Zealand’s once bipartisan climate change law to water down methane targets and permanently exclude agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme – a move Greenpeace says amounts to full-blown climate denial.
“This is truly astounding,” says Greenpeace Aotearoa climate campaigner, Amanda Larsson. “Luxon has gone full-on Trump. He’s choosing climate denial and corporate profits over our kids’ future.”
The decision will weaken targets for biogenic methane – mostly from livestock – despite strong warnings from climate scientists that doing so could derail the global fight against climate change.
“New Zealand is the world’s biggest dairy exporter. If we back down on cutting emissions from our most polluting industry, you can bet other big livestock-producing countries will jump on the bandwagon. That could be game over for the climate,” says Larsson.
“As if it wasn’t bad enough that people can’t afford butter while Fonterra banks huge profits – now Luxon’s handing big dairy a free pass to keep polluting, at the expense of a liveable future for our kids.
“This is about profits for a few, at the expense of climate catastrophe for millions.”
At the heart of the move to reduce methane targets is a controversial accounting trick called “no additional warming”, designed to justify continued high levels of agricultural methane emissions – even as science shows they must fall fast.
“It’s a political trick dressed up as science,” says Larsson. “It pretends current methane emissions are fine – when in reality, they’re fuelling the climate crisis.”
The decision comes after heavy lobbying from the meat and dairy industries – sectors now directly represented in government, with former Federated Farmers lobbyist Andrew Hoggard holding key ministerial roles. Even today, Federated Farmers’ response to the new methane targets was released before the Government decision was publicly available, highlighting close links between industry lobbyists and Government.
Larsson says, “Luxon might think he’s doing the livestock industry a solid but, really, he is throwing farmers under the bus. Today’s announcement is a signal to our climate-concerned trading partners to start looking elsewhere.”
Earlier this year, dozens of climate scientists wrote an open letter, featured on the front page of the Financial Times, urging Prime Minister Christopher Luxon not to weaken New Zealand’s methane target. They called instead for stronger ambition, in line with advice from the independent Climate Change Commission.
Today’s announcement follows other major climate U-turns – including lifting the offshore oil and gas exploration ban and pledging $200 million in fossil fuel subsidies.
Both moves conflict with international climate law and trade agreements, and could carry legal consequences under the recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion and clauses in New Zealand’s trade deals with the EU and UK.
