Greenpeace decries New Zealand methane emissions rollback
Credit: Haico, stock.adobe.com
New Zealand’s government has confirmed it will rewrite its climate law to weaken the country’s methane emissions target – a move Greenpeace warns will violate the Paris Agreement and embolden other major meat and dairy producers and exporters, including Ireland and Uruguay, to follow suit.
Shefali Sharma, global agriculture campaigner at Greenpeace Germany said, “New Zealand has signalled to the world’s biggest meat and dairy producers that it’s fine to ignore the largest human-made source of methane – and in doing so, undermine the Paris Agreement and accelerate global heating. Other major livestock exporting countries will now feel empowered to follow suit, which risks sparking a race to the bottom and threatens to derail global climate action.
“This decision by the New Zealand government pretends that current methane emissions from agriculture aren’t fuelling the climate crisis – despite overwhelming scientific consensus that drastic methane cuts are essential to prevent us from sweeping well past 1.5°C. This is a dangerous sleight of hand, and it delays the urgent action needed.”
The move means New Zealand will adopt a “no additional warming” methane goal – a dairy industry-backed metric that permits continued high levels of agricultural methane emissions, despite warnings from climate scientists and the country’s independent Climate Change Commission that emissions must fall sharply.
