Forest & Bird - Kevin Hague, Chief Executive
"Nature needs every country to do their fair share. This target is an improvement on the last target but is still not a fair contribution to global efforts. By setting this target the Government is still expecting other countries to do our work for us.
"Unless the Government delivers a much better plan to cut emissions that what we have seen so far this target will be mostly met by buying carbon credits from other countries. That's a government subsidy to polluters like the dairy industry.
"Forest & Bird seeks assurances that any international carbon credits it buys have real integrity. This means real emission reductions, protecting nature and fully respecting human rights."
Generation Zero - Juliette Hendry
"Generation Zero is gutted with the unambitious announcement of New Zealand’s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. Coming right after the slap in the face that was the consultation document for the Emissions Reduction Plan, this NDC manipulates some numbers but falls woefully inadequate of NZ's fair share of emissions reductions. This weak NDC is an insult to those on the frontlines of the climate crisis, who right now are feeling the fiery impacts of inaction of countries such as NZ."
Greenpeace Aotearoa - Christine Rose, Lead Agriculture Campaigner
Greenpeace Aotearoa press release here.
"This new target is meaningless unless action is taken on emissions from industrial agriculture. Agriculture is 48% of our emissions, and this government and successive governments before them have continually kicked the (milk) can down the road, so unless agricultural emissions are addressed, this is just more hot air and hype. We need to see elimination of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, and lower stock numbers, to see real action on climate change."
Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc (LCANZI) - James Every-Palmer QC
"A 50 percent reduction sounds good, and it is a significant improvement on our current NDC. But it is not as good as it sounds. If we exactly meet our 2030 target in “NDC accounting” terms, relative to 2005 our actual net emissions would only decrease by 12.5 Mt CO2-e (21.8%).
"The reason for this disconnect between the headline figure and the actual effect on emissions is that New Zealand has chosen two accounting methodologies for expressing our NDC which allow for a headline number which sounds much more ambitious than it really is. The first technique is to express our NDC in gross-net terms. That is, the NDC sets a target for net emissions in 2030, but the target number is calculated by applying the percentage reduction to gross emissions in 2005. In addition, we have adopted an accounting construct referred to variously as “target accounting”, “NDC accounting” or the “modified activity-based approach” to represent net emissions for this purpose. This methodology does not measure “what the atmosphere sees”, but rather disregards all pre-1990 forestry and from 2021 averages forestry removals. Correcting for these two accounting techniques results in a 21.8% decrease. which is the real measure of ambition in our NDC (and not the headline 50%).
"We are disappointed that despite the vital importance of the coming decade to the chance of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees the Government has announced an NDC lacking sufficient ambition.
“The climate does not care about our clever accounting choices, it cares about the level of net emissions. And our failure to walk-the-talk will be apparent to our trading partners in our United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting."
Oil Change International - David Tong, Global Industry Campaign Manager
"Halving our emissions isn't enough, and this isn't even close to halving our emissions. The reality is that this is closer to a quarter reduction. While this is a real step forward, it's not nearly enough. Instead of getting real, committing to a just transition, and breaking free from our dependence on oil, gas, and coal, New Zealand's government is doubling down on creative accounting tricks and trying to buy our way out of the problem."
Ora Taiao: NZ Climate & Health Council - Dermot Coffey, Co-convenor
"OraTaiao is disappointed that our updated NDC falls far short of one that takes account of our historical emissions and position as a weathy nation. We have ongoing concerns that health and wellbeing are nowhere to be seen in our NDC discussion, and the recommendations of the WHO in their COP26 Special Report have not been adopted. We recognise that a strengthened NDC will require increased international efforts from Aotearoa, and consider the omission of a direct statement that indigenous rights worldwide will not be impinged upon by this to be a serious oversight."
Oxfam Aotearoa - Rachael Le Mesurier, Executive Director
Oxfam Aotearoa press release here.
"The New Zealand government’s NDC announcement is a betrayal to Pacific Island countries and those on the frontlines of climate change. Let’s be real here, this is not consistent with 1.5 degrees, let alone anywhere near our fair share of effort. The government has changed the way they count our emissions reductions to make them look like they are doing more than they are.
"This is a government that has said time and again that climate change is our nuclear-free moment. Instead of leading the fight against climate breakdown, they are hiding their inaction by changing the goal posts, and relying on the vast majority of this target to be met by paying other countries to do our job for us. To turn this around, some bold action needs to happen to tackle our industries with the biggest footprint domestically, including the agriculture sector.
“We’ve shown that we can play our part in global efforts with a recent four-fold increase in climate finance for countries most vulnerable to climate change. But now we need to get our own house in order. Each Minister in Cabinet needs to take responsibility for that fact that our current plans for domestic action are completely inadequate. New Zealand is not taking the action necessary for the country to do its bit to protect our planet and our people from significant harm.”
Te Ara Whatu members at COP26 - Tiana Jakicevich and India Logan-Riley
"New Zealand’s inadequate targets and failure to recognise an indigenous rights based approach to NDC’s puts indigenous peoples at risk both in Aotearoa and abroad.
"An indigenous rights based approach looks like:
An increased and focused domestic reductions plan instead of cost cutting international emissions reductions.
Returning and reviving indigenous governance of indigenous lands to exponentially decrease emissions.
"New Zealand has an obligation as a global north country to go beyond the baseline of 50 percent to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. New Zealand should be reducing emissions from the source, banning fossil fuels, including methane agriculture targets. Carbon offsets aren't action, they do not reduce emissions.
"The Government needs to be working off the latest inventory reduction targets, not 2005 to look better."
WWF-New Zealand - Livia Esterhazy, CEO
"Instead of actually delivering an ambitious NDC or even a merely adequate NDC, this government has only tinkered with the methodology to make our NDC look better than it really is. New Zealanders will not be fooled by clever accounting.
"Our previous NDC was not sufficient enough to keep global temperatures to 1.5C degrees and neither is our new one. New Zealand is not doing its “fair share”.
"This new NDC is below what is required to keep global temperatures to 1.5 degrees of warming.
"The Government has changed the methodology and now these new NDC targets look better than they are.
"The NDC does not break down the target into CO2e and methane. The US/EU has signed the Methane pledge - this pledge is 3 x higher than NZ's target.
"Decades of inaction are continuing - money is going offshore 0n carbon credits - other countries are planning to invest billions domestically - NZ is not.
"Year-on-year, decade after decade our emissions continue to rise."
ABOUT NZCAN
We are a network of over 30 New Zealand civil society groups, non-governmental organisations, trade unions and social movements who support each other and our allies to take real action to protect New Zealanders and others from climate change, to protect New Zealand's unique environment, and build a more fair, just and safe New Zealand for us all.
The New Zealand Climate Action Network is the New Zealand node of Climate Action Network International (CAN). CAN is a worldwide network of over 1500 organisations in more than 130 countries driving collective and sustainable action to fight the climate crisis and to achieve social and racial justice. CAN convenes and coordinates civil society at the UN climate talks and other international fora, including COP26.
TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS AND FURTHER COMMENT
Contact NZCAN Node Coordinator Rachel Dobric by email here, or by phone: 0064 21 068 1230.