“Minister James Shaw’s signing the methane pledge is irresponsible and weak”, says FARM Chairman, Robin Grieve.

“There was absolutely no need for New Zealand to join this jamboree because we don’t have high fossil sourced methane emissions, we don’t have lots of leaky pipes and inefficient processes. What we do have is biogenic methane mostly from our ruminant livestock and this is quite different to fossil sourced methane. It is an amateurish mistake to conflate the two”.

“Industrial nations with high fossil sourced methane emissions have pledged to fix leaky pipes and improve processes to reduce fossil sourced methane by 30%. This pledge makes sense for them because leaky pipes should be fixed in any case and it is an easy and economical fix which will have environmental benefits”.

“Ruminant methane emissions in New Zealand are stable even declining and as such they do not cause any increase in atmospheric methane. The Climate Commission confirmed this in its report. Stable ruminant methane emissions are part of an atmospherically neutral cycle. To conflate our ruminant methane emissions with fossil sourced methane is to deny science. James Shaw has let New Zealand down by signing up to this pledge and should immediately withdraw from it, or stipulate that it relates only to fossil sourced methane”.

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