Greenpeace is issuing a \u201cplease explain\u201d to the Green Party after action on agricultural emissions was left off its list of policy priorities, released yesterday.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe dairy industry is New Zealand\u2019s biggest polluter, responsible for driving the climate crisis, contaminating people\u2019s drinking water and choking rivers with algae,\u201d says Greenpeace spokesperson Christine Rose. <\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s baffling to see the Green Party join the rest of the political parties in studiously avoiding talking about regulating the country\u2019s biggest climate polluter, this election. If the party that claims to be a champion for the environment won\u2019t stand up to call them out, which party will?
\u201cThe intensive dairy industry has downplayed its role in the climate crisis and pushed regulation delays for years. This has led to the failure of successive Governments to take action to cut the sector\u2019s climate pollution. Without strong political leadership, that legacy will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The Green Party\u2019s document \u2018The Future Is Up to Us\u2019, highlights the Party\u2019s priorities going into the election. It outlines actions that the Greens will prioritise on areas including housing, tax, ocean protection and climate change. The document includes policies on electricity and transport emissions, which respectively make up ~7% and ~17% of the nation\u2019s emissions. However, there is noticeably no mention of action on agriculture which makes up 50% of the country\u2019s emissions including most of its superheating gases methane and nitrous oxide.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe know that the Greens have strong policy on agriculture. They need to make these policies a priority in potential coalition negotiations, or we will be left with worsening climate emissions and drinking water contamination and more unswimmable rivers due to unchecked dairy industry pollution,\u201d says Rose.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe need urgent climate action that benefits people and nature, and we need it now,\u201d says Rose. \u201cWe\u2019re urging the Green Party to tell it like it is on climate change, and to prioritise tackling the nation\u2019s most polluting industry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greenpeace is issuing a \u201cplease explain\u201d to the Green Party after action on agricultural emissions was left off its list of policy priorities, released yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":59757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16,19,51],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-61162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","tag-food-and-farming","tag-politics","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n