Today the High Court in Wellington begins hearing a ground-breaking case taken against the Climate Change Commission by Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc, who are arguing the Commission’s advice to the Government is not consistent with the science of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Greenpeace lead agriculture campaigner Christine Rose says “There has long been a giant cow-shaped hole in the Ardern Government’s climate policy, with little attempt to regulate New Zealand’s worst climate polluter: intensive dairy. The Climate Commission’s weak advice continues to give the dairy industry a free pass on climate pollution, when it should be clearly recommending bold agricultural policies.”
“Intensive dairying is to New Zealand what coal is to Australia, it is our biggest climate polluter. If this Government is serious about tackling the climate crisis, it must address intensive dairy. That means cutting synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, fewer cows and supporting farmers to shift to more plant-based, regenerative organic farming,” says Rose.
Greenpeace says the Climate Change Commission seems more interested in placating the dairy industry than doing what is necessary to avert the climate crisis. The court case comes the day before the IPCC is to release a report detailing the impacts of climate change.
“The Government needs sound advice and pressure to avert catastrophic climate breakdown – not the weak, unambitious advice being provided by the Climate Change Commission,” says Rose.
“This case shows the need for the Government to deliver true climate justice: to protect the world and people we love from the impacts of climate breakdown.”
Join our call on the Government to go further than the Climate Commission’s inadequate recommendations and cut climate pollution from NZ’s biggest polluter: industrial dairying.
