Climate denial Government abuses process to lower methane levels for corporate farmers

As the planet burns and while everyone’s attention is on celebrating an exhausted Christmas with many whanau missing from around the table this year, the Government abused urgency to ram through lowered methane targets for their Corporate Farmer mates…

Parliament debates climate targets under urgency

Farmers will be exposed to the uncertainty of the three-year political cycle by the government’s decision to walk away from the bipartisan consensus on climate change, the Greens say.

The government is pushing through all three stages of a bill to weaken the 2050 methane emissions target under urgency in Parliament on Friday.

If passed, a required 24 to 47% reduction in methane from 2017 levels will be halved, to a 14 to 24% reduction.

…Once again this anti-environment Government strangles the common goof for their Corporate Farmer mates!

This Government is in total denial about climate change and it’s impact on our environment…

New Zealand oceans warming 34% faster than global average, putting homes and industry at risk, report finds

New Zealand’s oceans are warming 34% faster than the global average, with NZ$180bn (US$104bn) worth of housing at risk of flooding, a new report about the nation’s marine environment has revealed.

The ministry of the environment and Stats NZ’s three-yearly update, Our Environment 2025, collates statistics, data and research across five domains – air, atmosphere and climate, freshwater, land, and marine – to paint a picture of the state of New Zealand’s marine environment.

The latest in the series, Our Marine Environment 2025, painted a sobering picture for the country’s oceans and coasts – one defined by warming and rising seas, intensifying marine heatwaves and ocean acidification, brought about by global heating.

…look at what is happening in Antartica…

Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica

Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate,” scientists have found, raising fears that future global warming predictions may have been underestimated.

Huge amounts of methane lie in reservoirs that have formed over millennia beneath the seafloor around the world. This invisible, climate-polluting gas can escape into the water through fissures in the sea floor, often revealing itself with a stream of bubbles weaving their way up to the ocean surface.

Relatively little is known about these underwater seeps, how they work, how many there are, and how much methane reaches the atmosphere versus how much is eaten by methane-munching microbes living beneath the ocean.

But scientists are keen to better understand them, as this super-polluting gas traps around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in its first 20 years in the atmosphere.

…and what’s this Government’s response? Let their Corporate Farmer mates pollute without consequence!

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

…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.

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!

We must brutally take the Framing Industry to court for their environmental crimes, which is exactly what happened last month…

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 must forget negotiating with them and use the law to force them to change their polluter ways.

If you are not incandescent with rage, you are not paying attention.

Ramming these changes through by abusing Urgency while no one is paying attention reminds you just how terrible this Government really is.

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