Australia will have to wait another 10 days to see what its future carbon emissions actions will look like but nearest neighbour New Zealand has proposed ambitious new targets to cut the country’s non-agriculture carbon emissions to zero by 2050.
However, the country’s farmers are angry the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill will require them to cut methane emissions.
New Zealand’s government, led by the Labour Party in coalition with the New Zealand First Party, has introduced legislation to tackle climate change that includes a target for cutting methane emissions from livestock by at least 10 per cent by 2030.
The agriculture sector slammed the bill as a threat to one of the largest contributors to New Zealand’s economy, though environmentalists say it is also a major polluter.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who has set a goal for the country to be carbon neutral by 2025, said today the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill was a “landmark action” on climate change.
The bill treats methane emissions from animals differently than other greenhouse gas emissions, but still targets a 10 per cent reduction in biological methane by 2030, and a reduction of up to 47 per cent by 2050.
Carbon emissions would be reduced to net zero by 2050, according to the legislation.
“We’ve built a practical consensus across government that creates a plan for the next 30 years, which provides the certainty industries need to get in front of this challenge,” Ms Ardern said in a statement.
Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the Zero Carbon Bill would make it a legally binding objective to help keep global warming below the 1.5 degrees Celsius rise forecast by United Nations experts between 2030 and 2052.
“Agriculture is incredibly important to New Zealand, but it also needs to be part of the solution,” Mr Shaw said.
The United Nations says livestock farming alone is responsible for up to 18 percent of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
New Zealand’s main agriculture lobby group said the methane target would hurt the country and do little to help the climate.
“This decision is frustratingly cruel, because there is nothing I can do on my farm today that will give me confidence I can ever achieve these targets,” said Andrew Hoggard, President of the Federated Farmers of New Zealand.
A meat industry group said it was alarmed by the target and warned of the negative impact on rural communities.
Tim Ritchie, chief executive of the Meat Industry Association, said the emission cuts were not possible with current technology and reductions could only be achieved by cutting herds.
“This will impose enormous economic costs on the country and threaten many regional communities who depend on pastoral agriculture,” said Mr Ritchie.
A country of around five million people, New Zealand is also home to more than 10 million cows and around 28 million sheep.
Almost half the country’s carbon emissions come from biological methane emissions produced by the agriculture industry.
The bill, which still needs to be approved by the NZ Parliament, said the lower targets for methane reduction reflected that methane stayed in the atmosphere for a much shorter time than carbon dioxide.
Russel Norman, the executive director of Greenpeace New Zealand, said the bill would have little clout because there was no mechanism to hold anybody to account.
“What we’ve got here is a reasonably ambitious piece of legislation that’s then had the teeth ripped out of it. There’s bark, but there’s no bite,” he said.
Ms Ardern said the country had little choice but to act to avoid devastating climate change.
“We know the climate is changing. People can see that,” she said.
“This legislation makes a start on tackling climate change because the alternative is the catastrophic cost of doing nothing.”
The government has also promised to plant one billion trees over 10 years and ensure the electricity grid runs entirely on renewable energy by 2035.
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