WWF-New Zealand has blasted the Government’s ‘abysmal’ new methane reduction target, saying it ignores international scientific consensus, dismantles New Zealand’s flagship climate law, and effectively abandons the cross-party consensus on tackling climate change.

Chief Executive Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb says the decision to almost halve the 2050 methane target to just a 14-24% reduction is “reckless, unjustified, and a betrayal of future generations”.

“This decision puts a torch to whatever was left of New Zealand’s climate credibility,” she says. “It sends a clear message to the world: New Zealand is giving up on a 1.5-degree future.

“Slashing our methane target so drastically flies in the face of science, shatters the political consensus forged through the Zero Carbon Act, and betrays our Paris Agreement commitments.

“The farming lobby is writing our climate policy, and the Government is letting them. This isn’t leadership – it’s regulatory capture, plain and simple.”

The current methane target – which is 24-47% below 2017 levels by 2050 – was set in 2019 based on advice from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and legislated through the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act with rare cross-party support.

The changes announced today require amendments to the Act – effectively unpicking the architecture designed to ensure stable, science-based climate policy aimed at keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees.

“We’re watching the systematic dismantling of New Zealand’s once world-leading climate architecture, piece by piece. This is a direct attack on the political foundations of climate action in Aotearoa,” says Kingdon-Bebb.

“To weaken this target now – with no scientific justification and no public mandate – is a shameful, climate-wrecking decision. The Government’s own advice says it is inconsistent with a 1.5-degree pathway. Not only that, but this constant political flip-flopping isn’t helpful for anyone – quite perversely, with the adverse impact it will have on market access and brand integrity, it's shooting our exporters in the foot.”

Agriculture makes up nearly half of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions – by far the largest single contributor.

“This decision gives agriculture a free pass, while making the rest of the country pick up the slack,” says Kingdon-Bebb.

“In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, ordinary New Zealanders and other sectors will be forced to do more – and pay more – to cover for the Government’s failure to act on methane. That’s not just unfair – it’s economically reckless.”

It was only a few months ago that leading international climate scientists wrote to the New Zealand Government warning that reducing the methane target would “contradict the IPCC’s scientific assessments” and undermine global climate action.

The Government is justifying its backslide by using an approach known as “no additional warming” - the idea that methane emissions can stay at current levels because they wouldn’t cause further warming. WWF says this selective accounting is wildly out of step with the science behind the Paris Agreement.

“The science is unequivocal: methane must fall sharply if we are to limit warming to 1.5°C,” said Kingdon-Bebb.

“The Coalition government can’t keep insisting it is committed to the Paris Agreement while advancing a steady barrage of policy changes that directly undermine New Zealand’s ability to meet our climate targets. Do our Ministers seriously believe the international community hasn’t noticed New Zealand’s recent pivot towards overt self-interested hypocrisy?”

“This approach signals to the world that we are resiling from our Paris commitments, undermining decades of international goodwill and risking serious reputational and trade consequences.”

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