New Zealand and Ireland announce renewed Greenwash Alliance to cover up methane emissions failures – Greenpeace

Greenpeace has slammed a new agricultural emissions research agreement between New Zealand and Ireland, announced yesterday, labelling it a ‘Greenwash Alliance’ designed to shield two of the world’s most aggressive meat and dairy exporters from climate accountability.

Amanda Larsson, Global Project Lead for Agriculture at Greenpeace Aotearoa, said: “New Zealand and Ireland are currently using the same playbook to wriggle out of their climate responsibilities. Announcing a research partnership is a tired greenwashing tactic. It’s a classic case of kicking the can down the road while doing nothing meaningful to actually cut emissions today. 

“In reality, these nations are exploring controversial methane accounting tools that hide the true scale of their pollution – directly defying the scientific advice that demands urgent, absolute cuts to livestock emissions.

“There is little to suggest that this partnership is anything more than an alliance between two governments who have proven willing to tear up their climate commitments to protect the profits of their intensive livestock industries.”

Last year, New Zealand weakened its methane targets in line with the controversial concept of ‘no additional warming’, following heavy lobbying from the agribusiness sector. This move, which requires the sector to stabilise emissions rather than reducing them, directly contradicted advice from the New Zealand government’s expert advisory body – the Climate Change Commission – which recommended a stronger methane target. The decision was condemned by scientists, NGOs, and New Zealand’s Pacific Island neighbours.

Now, Ireland is looking to follow in New Zealand’s footsteps. Earlier this month, a coalition of over 30 environmental and farming organisations – including Greenpeace International – issued an open letter to the Irish government and the EU Commissioner for Climate, urging the rejection of “temperature neutrality” targets for agricultural methane in Ireland. Days later, the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change in their Agriculture report qualified the metric that such targets are based on as “highly sensitive to arbitrary choices” and “politically disruptive”. 

Larsson added: “The real solutions to cutting livestock emissions are well-known. Ireland must listen to its independent farmers and scientists and not capitulate to the demands of the agri-business lobbyists, as New Zealand has done.

“Wealthy exporting nations like New Zealand and Ireland should be leading the charge to reduce livestock herd sizes and support their farmers to transition to more plant-based ecological farming methods that work with nature, instead of against it.”

Livestock is the single largest source of human-made methane emissions. Methane is a superheating gas, around 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. But it is relatively short-lived, which scientists say means that if we drastically cut methane emissions now, we can pull the climate “emergency brake” with an immediate effect on slowing temperature rise in our lifetimes.