4 December 2025

"It is incredibly disappointing that the Government today has decided to reject all of the Climate Change Commission’s recommendations on the 2050 target - the lodestar of our central climate framework law”, says Jessica Palairet, Executive Director at Lawyers for Climate Action NZ.

“In doing so, the Government has once again ignored the advice from its independent expert body on climate change, the Climate Change Commission. This was a missed opportunity for the Government to restore New Zealand’s climate ambition”.

“Today’s decision confirms that the Government will weaken the biogenic methane component of the 2050 target to just 14-24% below 2017 levels by 2050, aligned with the controversial ‘no additional warming’ metric; will not strengthen the target for other gases beyond net zero by 2050; and will not include emissions from international aviation and shipping in the 2050 target - all contrary to the Commission’s recommendations.”

“Under law, the Government did not have to agree with the Commission's advice. It was, however, legally obliged to respond and provide reasons for any departure from the Commission's recommendations. That’s what this document released today does - and in our view, many of the reasons provided by the Government are unreasonable.”

“New Zealand’s 2050 target is now blatantly not in line with our international climate obligations, as clarified earlier this year by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ confirmed that States have binding legal obligations to prevent dangerous climate change and to use ‘all means at their disposal’ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Today’s decision places New Zealand further out of step with those obligations”.

“According to officials’ and the Commission’s own advice, the 2050 target does not align with the primary temperature goal under the Paris Agreement, which is to limit the global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The Government was warned that the bottom range of a 14-24% ‘no additional warming’ methane target is consistent with an emissions trajectory of 2-2.7°C of warming, and that it would, remarkably, increase New Zealand’s share of warming. And yet, the Government chose that option.”

“The Commission was clear that our current 2050 target needed to be strengthened as a whole, as our current target did not reflect the growing risks of temperature overshoot, the increasing severity and scale of climate impacts, and the fact that delaying action to reduce emissions now merely shifts the burden for dealing with climate change onto future generations.”

“The Government also appears to have taken an unduly narrow view on economic impacts. The Commission had advised that setting a more ambitious target still supports economic growth - it can strengthen energy security and independence, reduce energy costs, improve productivity, increase resilience, and benefit public health”.

“New Zealand needs to do more than merely ‘contribute to’ our international climate commitments; it needs to meet them. That means setting domestic climate targets that are consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement, and that reflect the ICJ’s finding that States must use ‘all means at their disposal’ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Choosing lower ambition is a lost opportunity.”

© Scoop Media