Source: Greenpeace
Greenpeace Aotearoa has welcomed Opportunity’s new climate policy, pointing to its promise to cut agricultural methane as a vital step toward tackling New Zealand’s biggest source of pollution.
Opportunity pledges to align methane targets with the independent scientific advice of the Climate Change Commission, reversing controversial rollbacks on agribusiness emissions.
Greenpeace spokesperson Rhiannon Mackie says cutting methane is the fastest way to slow down climate disruption, calling it our emergency brake as the world is on track to blow past the 1.5 degree safe threshold.
“Opportunity is on the right track by promising to tackle the outsized climate pollution from New Zealand’s biggest emitter: the agricultural sector.”
“Right now, New Zealand is scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to climate action. This Government has refused to take action to reduce emissions from the agricultural industry, and at their request, has weakened our methane targets in line with the unscientific principle of No Additional Warming.”
“This policy from Opportunity is a step in the right direction, and it’s needed. Methane acts like a super-heating blanket over the planet, but cutting methane emissions now has the power to bring down global heating within our lifetimes.”
“It is the emergency brake that offers a lifeline for future generations.”
However, Mackie warns the party to avoid the traps that derailed past attempts to regulate dairy and intensive farming.
“Good intentions aren’t enough when you’re dealing with agribusiness lobbyists. The last government tried to work in partnership with the industry through He Waka Eke Noa, trusting them to help design a solution. The industry simply dragged its feet until it could see a government change on the horizon – and then walked away completely.
“It’s been more than 20 years since Helen Clark first tried to introduce a price on agribusiness emissions. Yet New Zealand’s biggest polluters still pay nothing for their greenhouse gases.”
The policy package released today outlined Opportunity’s entire climate action policy, and Greenpeace says it is concerned about a proposed billion dollar transition fund for industry users of coal and gas, as well as plans to establish a new methane pricing model.
Instead of allowing more years of delay by designing a new trade system for farming emissions, Greenpeace is urging Opportunity to stick to the tool we already have: bringing agriculture directly into the existing Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
“We are seeing the consequences of an unstable climate play out in real time with extreme heatwaves causing death and failed harvests, alongside deadly floods,” says Mackie.
“Opportunity has shown the courage to name the problem. It remains to be seen whether this crop of candidates from outside Parliament have the political grit to stand up to lobbyists, and hold the most powerful polluters in the country accountable for their role in the climate crisis.”