It\u2019s the award no country wants to receive. New Zealand has been presented with the \u2018Fossil of the Day\u2019 at COP30 in Brazil over recent backtracking on methane targets.<\/p>\n\n
The award, presented each day of the UN climate conference by Climate Action Network International, is awarded to the country that is \u201cdoing the most to achieve the least\u201d on climate change.<\/p>\n\n
Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Amanda Larsson says, \u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing but it\u2019s sadly not surprising. New Zealand has had a reputation for being clean and green but that image is being sullied by the Luxon government\u2019s bonfire of climate policies.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cFossil of the Day is the award no country wants to receive, and today, the shame of receiving it is on Christopher Luxon\u2019s Government, who are weakening the requirements for our most polluting industry to take action on climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The New Zealand Government recently announced that it will weaken the target for reducing methane emissions. The vast majority of methane emissions come from the livestock industry, which is New Zealand\u2019s biggest contributor to climate change.<\/p>\n\n
This decision was made after heavy lobbying from groups like Federated Farmers and Groundswell and directly contradicts the advice of the Government\u2019s independent Climate Change Commission, which called for a strengthening of the methane target.<\/p>\n\n
At the heart of the move to reduce methane targets is a controversial accounting trick called \u201cno additional warming\u201d, designed to justify continued high levels of agricultural methane emissions \u2013 even as science shows they must fall fast.<\/p>\n\n
Climate Action Network International, who gave out the \u201caward\u201d, said in a press release that, \u201cThis is not leadership. It is not science-based. And it is certainly not consistent with the Paris Agreement or with the UNFCCC principles of equity and responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
That\u2019s a sentiment echoed by international climate scientists, who made headlines in June for writing to the New Zealand Government in an open letter urging Christopher Luxon not to adopt \u2018no additional warming\u2019.<\/p>\n\n
Larsson says this is just the tip of the iceberg. \u201cNew Zealand is the world\u2019s biggest dairy exporter. Other major livestock producers will be looking to us to see whether this approach is worthwhile. Our Government has just lit the fuse on a global methane race to the bottom \u2013 once one domino falls, others will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWe are in the middle of a climate crisis. Cutting methane emissions now is our emergency brake. And we don\u2019t have time to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n