Greenpeace – New Zealand sabotaged critical climate action advice by IPCC

9 April: It’s been revealed that New Zealand Government officials sabotaged critical recommendations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to combat climate change.

Records show that New Zealand officials argued against recommendations for a shift to plant-based diets in the crucial ‘Summary for Policymakers’ version of IPCC Working Group’s latest climate change mitigation report to world governments.

The New Zealand delegation, joined by India and Kenya, proposed changing the language from ‘plant-based foods’ to ‘healthy diets’. This change was accepted, despite clear scientific evidence that meat and dairy is responsible for significantly more emissions than a plant-based diet.

Greenpeace Aoteaora lead agriculture campaigner, Christine Rose said “It’s shameful to see that, along with the New Zealand government’s failure to take real action to reduce agricultural climate pollution here at home, they’re also working to sabotage global efforts to do the same.”

“It smacks of meat and dairy industry influence, and we challenge Climate Minister James Shaw to stop New Zealand officials undermining critical efforts to avert the climate crisis.

“The intensive dairy industry is New Zealand’s biggest climate polluter and if this Government is serious about climate action we need to see a fundamental shift away from industrial agriculture to more plant-based regenerative organic farming.

“We cannot risk the future of life on earth for the sake of dairy industry profits. It’s time for James Shaw to get with the programme and start advocating for real climate action.

“We need better from our Government and its representatives. Responses to climate change should be evidence-led, not science-denying sabotage to preserve the profits to a few from the status quo. That status quo is full steam ahead to runaway climate change.”