Greenpeace Aotearoa has joined a complaint to the EU, lodged by European organisation Both ENDS, over New Zealand\u2019s failure to comply with clauses in the EU-NZ Free Trade Agreement requiring strong climate action.<\/p>\n\n
Greenpeace Aotearoa Executive Director Dr Russel Norman says<\/strong>, \u201cThe New Zealand Government has spent the last three years systematically undermining climate and environment laws and regulations in our country, often with the explicit stated purpose of gaining trade benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cWe are in a climate and biodiversity crisis, and the UN is warning that we are set to breach 1.5\u2103 of global temperature rise. We need urgent action to cut climate pollution rapidly, but the Government has instead spent the last three years engaged in a race to the bottom on environmental regulation \u2013 and that\u2019s why we have co-sponsored this complaint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Norman says that this action comes after years of good-faith engagement with the New Zealand Government.<\/p>\n\n “Over the last three years we have met with the Prime Minister, Ministers and senior officials on many occasions to urge them to change course and to warn them that they were breaching the climate obligations in the sustainability chapter of the EU-NZ free trade agreement. We have mobilised people to sign petitions, we\u2019ve made submissions against their legislation, we\u2019ve marched in the streets, and more. But this Government has not listened.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n “Hence today we are joining this complaint in the hope that the risk of losing preferential trade access to the EU market will encourage the New Zealand Government to change course. Sadly it seems that money is the only language they understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n The EU-NZ Free Trade Agreement, signed in 2023, requires both parties to \u2018effectively implement the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement, including commitments with regard to nationally determined contributions\u2019, and \u2018to refrain from any action or omission that materially defeats the object and purpose of the Paris Agreement.\u2019<\/p>\n\n Dr Norman says, “We need to act collectively as a global community to achieve our climate and environmental objectives, yet the New Zealand Government has consistently and deliberately undermined global efforts, and undermined the Paris climate agreement in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n\n “Whatever the outcome of the New Zealand general election in November, we need to insist that the next New Zealand Government rejoins the nations of the world that take their climate and environment responsibilities seriously.”<\/p>\n\n The Both ENDS complaint identifies several areas of concern as evidence of a breach of the EU-NZ Free Trade Agreement, including:<\/p>\n\n The Both ENDS complaint is co-sponsored by the following New Zealand organisations and individuals: the Environmental Law Initiative, Greenpeace Aotearoa, Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga Iwi ki Tauranga Trust, OraTaiao: New Zealand Climate and Health Council, Mike Smith, and Professor Emeritus Jane Kelsey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The complaint addresses Government reversal of climate policies, which Greenpeace has labelled a ‘race to the bottom on environmental regulation’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":61968,"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_seo_meta_title":"","p4_seo_meta_description":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-79327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n\n