Greenpeace is slamming the climate strategy announced by Climate Change Minister Simon Watts today, saying that it’s about as useful as teats on a bull.
Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Sinéad Deighton-O’Flynn says, “This so-called climate strategy is a kick in the guts for all the people around Aotearoa who have had their homes and communities flooded recently due to extreme weather events.”
The strategy, which outlines five ‘pillars’ of climate action, includes nothing that will actually combat climate change and reveals a reliance on what Greenpeace is labelling ‘unproven and unreliable’ technofixes.
“The climate crisis is here. It’s driven by greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s threatening people’s lives and livelihoods right now. We need action to cut emissions, not impotent pretend policies like the one offered today by Simon Watts,” says Deighton-O’Flynn.
“Most importantly, here in Aotearoa, the biggest climate polluter is the intensive dairy industry led by Fonterra. Their unchecked pollution is putting our homes and communities at risk, and yet the climate strategy outlined today by Minister Watts does nothing to restrict dairy industry pollution.”
June marked the thirteenth consecutive month of record-breaking global temperatures and the twelfth month where temperatures were more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
More than half of New Zealand’s climate pollution comes from the agricultural industry, mostly methane emissions from intensive dairying. Methane is a superheating greenhouse gas, eighty times more powerful than carbon dioxide, and is considered a ‘short-lived’ greenhouse gas. It remains in the atmosphere for approximately 12 years, significantly less time than carbon dioxide, but makes a major contribution to global temperature increases.
“Right now, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to drastically reduce global temperatures in the short term by taking action on methane emissions from the dairy industry. Cutting methane emissions now means that we can immediately prevent additional global heating,” says Deighton-O’Flynn.
“But we can’t do that if we rely on unproven, unreliable techno-fixes, as is laid out in the Government’s current climate change plan. Real action on dairy industry climate pollution means reducing the number of cows on farms, and supporting farmers to transition towards ecological, organic farming practices.”