Greens expose Government breaching trade deals with pollution subsidy as Government pulls out of global coalition for phasing out fossil fuels

Legal advice shows gas fund breaches new trade deal – but ministers disagree

• The Government has started a new $200 million fund to invest in new gas exploration.
• But the Green Party has presented legal advice showing that fund would breach a trade deal New Zealand agreed to less than a year ago.
• There are concerns other trade deals could be put at risk, given commitments from New Zealand not to fund fossil fuel extraction.

The new $200million subsidy for the oil and gas industry immediately falls foul of the very trade deals we only recently signed…

The Government insists it isn’t breaching international trade deals with its new $200 million investment fund for local gas exploration, despite new legal advice saying the funding compromises at least one deal.

Legal advice commissioned by the Green Party, from Nura Taefi KC, says the investment breaches a deal signed by Trade Minister Todd McClay just eight months ago.

In November, McClay signed New Zealand to the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability. He said that deal would open trade to at least three new markets and could bring significant “economic benefits”.

But key to that deal was a commitment that New Zealand would eliminate “harmful fossil fuel subsidies”. The definition of “subsidy” in the fine print of the agreement was quite broad, with the Green Party arguing that the investment fund would constitute a subsidy.

…oh sweet Jesus this is priceless.

We sign a trade deal and make a big fuss about it, promptly breach that Trade deal with a $200m subsidy to the gas and oil industry and don’t know how to respond because National are really this dumb!

That is all happening as the Government quietly pulls out of our environmental commitments…

NZ pulls out of global coalition for phasing out fossil fuels

The New Zealand government has quietly pulled out of an international coalition for phasing out fossil fuels.

The move follows the announcement of $200 million funding to support new drilling for fossil fuel fields at the Budget.

WWF NZ said it was a “shameful retreat from international climate leadership”.

“This isn’t just backsliding – it’s an international embarrassment,” chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb said.

Greenpeace said New Zealand was the first country to withdraw from the deal, and there was a “growing risk that the government’s reversal of climate change policies will result in backlash from New Zealand’s trading partners”.

…the truth is that

The polling numbers don’t lie, Farmers are culturally sectarian in their allegiance to the polluters and they will never, ever, ever change…

How would farmers vote if an election were held today? The results might surprise you

• • National:54%
  • ACT:19%
  • NZ First:8%
  • Labour:3%
  • Greens:2%
  • Te Pati Māori:1%
  • Other:1%
  • Unsure:12%

…THEY CAN NOT BE NEGOTIATED WITH!

They are sectarian!

Labour foolishly (enabled by James Shaw) tried to cut deals with Farmers and Farmers turned and shat in our face!

Dark money from the agricultural industry soaks into the astro-turf Taxpayer’s Union stable of clients and enables Groundswell to stop any environmental improvements.

National disgracefully appointed a Dairy Industry Stooge as the Chief Scientist while bring back the 100% Pure greenwash tourism campaign!

The truth is the Left need to be brutal on one hand and supportive with the other.

Just consider the manner in which Corporate Dairy have seized control of NZ’s political right…

The Climate Change Commission recommends methane cuts of 35-47%. However, under pressure from lobby groups like Federated Farmers – whose ex-President Andrew Hoggard is now an ACT Party MP – the Government established a separate panel to review the methane target in line with this controversial tool. That panel landed on a much weaker methane target.

Larsson says, “The Luxon Government chose to sideline its independent, science-based climate advisory body by setting up a separate review panel with the very narrow task of giving it the answers it wanted. No wonder international climate scientists are raising the alarm.”

Pointing to the stagnation of the NZX50 and the dismal share performance of dominant companies like Fletcher Building and Air New Zealand, he suggests that cushy directorships and an old boys’ club mentality have entrenched mediocrity.

…this total policy capture by polluter interests is the reason we are being attacked on the global stage by International Climate Scientists…

Scientists accuse New Zealand and Ireland of trying to cover up livestock emissions

Leading climate scientists have accused politicians in New Zealand and Ireland of using an “accounting trick” to back their sheep and cattle industries, warning their support for methane-emitting livestock could undermine global efforts to fight climate change. In an open letter shared with the Financial Times, 26 climate scientists from around the world warned that New Zealand’s proposed new methane targets risk setting a dangerous precedent. 

…that’s right!

The Corporate Dairy industry has spent millions donating to National and putting dark money into Right Wing astroturf organisations to shut down any meaningful climate emissions targets that the rest of the world has noticed the policy corruption and are now calling us out.

We are being attacked internationally for being a climate criminal all because National refuse to stand up to their Corporate Dairy interests.

The Carbon Capture ‘technology’ that National have banked all our emission offsets on doesn’t work…

Carbon capture: Pivotal project for cutting greenhouse gas emissions looks shaky

A critical part of the government’s plan for cutting greenhouse gas emissions over the next five years appears to have fallen over.

…and in the last budget National cut 50% to climate finance, barely any cuts to emissions, all while slashing foreign aid for our Pacific brothers and sisters by cutting climate aid by $100m.

This Government is a Climate Denial Government who are refusing to do anything about the coming adaptation because they are paid by the polluters.

So how does the Left respond?

The truth is the Left need to be brutal on one hand and supportive with the other.

NZ Dairy farms were forced to take on huge debt for Dairy intensification that our environment couldn’t sustain WHILE enslaving us to our new Chinese Economic Overlords.

We pay a price for NZ dairy and NZ meat that is set by an international market, so we are competing with the 400million others wanting that product!

A cow shits the same as 14 humans, we have 10 million cows, that’s the equivalent of 140million humans pissing and shitting into our rivers.

A recent report on food security found NZ had incredibly low food security because it was so open market driven and refused to subsidise farmers.

Which is where we on the Left must drive the debate.

We should absolutely consider subsidising food grown by NZ farmers and horticulturalists and our seafood and meat and dairy that generates a 15% price reduction for all NZ produce consumed here.

For growers we need to protect our most productive growing land for food by giving those producers tax breaks to ensure they can continue to feed NZers first.

Rebuilding a direct link between the harvest grown here, the people who grow it and a grateful local market who enjoy the product WITH a 15% price reduction.

Climate change will kill global free market supply chains, we are locked into hyper-regionalism. We need to build new economic structures, subsidising NZ kai for the domestic market would lock in certainty for producers while strengthening food security for the population.

So we should work with Farmers to ensure stable food production and prices for our own people AND we must brutally take the Framing Industry ti court for their environmental crimes, which is exactly what happened this week…

Climate Legal Action Necessary Response To Govt Inaction – NZCTU

The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi welcomes the legal action taken against the Minister of Climate Change by a coalition of legal experts as an important step in ensuring that Aotearoa meets its climate action obligations.

“We strongly support legal action to ensure that the Government is held to account for its legal obligations under the Climate Change Response Act,” said NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff.

“The union movement is deeply concerned by the Emissions Reduction Plan 2026-2030, which contains no significant policies to reduce emissions and will fail to get New Zealand meaningfully closer to our 2050 net-zero commitment.

“The actions – or lack of them – by this Government on climate change are the actions of climate deniers, not responsible leaders.

“Workers and communities need real political leadership that combats global emissions and invests in creating a just transition for industries and workers. We need leadership that develops and upholds long term consensus, not more U-turns.

“Instead, we have a government that cancelled 35 climate policies without consulting the public first, as required by law. Robust public engagement is essential.

“Climate policy is yet another area where this Government is prioritising corporate interests over democratic accountability and the interests of working people.

“Evidence is clear that a near-total focus on tree planting through vast pine forests is not a sufficient response – we must reduce emissions at source.

“Alongside the weak emissions budget, in Budget 2025 we saw a total abdication of responsibility on climate change and ensuring a Just Transition for working people in an increasingly volatile world.

“The NZCTU supports bold climate action to reduce emissions, adapt to the changing climate, and transition to a zero emissions economy that provides full employment for workers,” said Wagstaff.

…we need to work with Framers to ensure our local food security but we must forget negotiating with them and use the law to force them to change their polluter ways.

LOOK AT THOSE NUMBER AGAIN

• National:54%
• ACT:19%
• NZ First:8%
• Labour:3%
• Greens:2%
• Te Pati Māori:1%
• Other:1%
• Unsure:12%

You can’t negotiate with a sectarian culture like that, Federated Farmers thought they were being clever promoting this poll, what they have in fact shown us is the Farming community are slaves to the polluters interests and will never ever take their climate change obligations seriously.

Send in the lawyers, use the law to force the polluters to change, no more negotiations!

 

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