Q+A Review: Climate Minister Simon Watts is a joke looking for a punchline

As the National Party Climate Minister, Watts is the political mouthpiece for the big polluters and his bullshit defence of how this Government have changed every policy setting to enable the big polluter class is intellectually feeble and shallow.

How many times have we been conned into believing the Dairy Industry has a magical technological solution to reducing emissions – will it be that fucking special trial and development grass that will inhibit methane again?

They’ve sucked us in with this for 20 years!

This Government’s environmental agenda amounts to Climate Fascism.

Their acquiescence to Corporate Dairy and Real Estate Pimps amounts to a climate change policy that will cost us $24Billion FFS…

Simon Watts unveiled the Government’s long-awaited Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP), which shows the Coalition’s policies are forecast to increase net emissions by 22 million tonnes by 2030, which means the Government is set to fail to meet the third Zero Carbon Act Budget for 2030-35 and miss the net zero target for 2050. The Paris Agreement liability is estimated at 97 million tonnes (mt), which Treasury has estimated could cost up to $24 billion to ensure New Zealand can keep exporting to Europe and the UK.

…what is the actual solution here?

When we have to pay the $24billion once it is apparent that our emissions have gone up and not down, what exactly will the Right wing argument be?

Let me guess, the ZB Trolls will start screaming, “why are we paying $24billion for an agreement in Paris we shouldn’t have signed in the first place”.

What will the actual claim be?

That we don’t pay our international obligations?

That we don’t pay the $24billion?

Is that what the argument will be?

So it’s climate fascism that will side step our global obligations at a time when the planet is melting.

Watching National, ACT and Corporate Farmers use their economic and political muscle to avoid responsibility for what comes next can only be resolved by civil unrest and a campaign of civil disobedience against those interests.

Just consider how the Corporate Farming Lobby have managed to avoid any tax on their pollution since mid 2004!

They have pushed and pushed and pushed it off for 20 years!

National have already promised ANOTHER 5 year extension which will mean the agricultural industry have managed to stop any tax on their pollution for quarter of a century!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Claiming that NZs emissions mean nothing in comparison to China and India isn’t a justification to do nothing, it’s an acknowledgement that radical adaptation is the only move left because those Goliath economies have already doomed us to a dangerous climate change future!

The pro-Polluter pimps claim we feed 40million people and if we don’t produce it here, it will be produced at a worse environmental cost elsewhere!

We always ignore that the 40million number is based on us selling milk powder as a base line ingredient filler for the manufactured food industry. The PR spin pretends it’s wholesome NZ cheese and milk and meat those 40million are eating when the truth is the vast majority of what we export is basic bitch milk powder used as a filler ingredient!

The moment the manufactured food industry replaces milk powder for a synthetic one, our economy will be destroyed!

The heat is only building, it isn’t going down, we are seeing record breaking temperature after record breaking temperature.

There’s a tipping point within the population that will demand a radical re-ordering of the economy and society that shatters the current political spectrum…

A US study has found insurance costs are set to rise 600-800% in coming years because of increased damage from storms and sea-level change caused by climate change.

…catastrophic climate change is here, this Government is simply pouring petrol on the fire.

Climate Minister Simon Watts is a joke looking for a punchline, this Government is focused on protecting the polluters interests, not our collective interests.

The Left must force a bargain with Farmers and Growers for strategically essential reasons.

They are going to feed us when the famine comes.

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

To date, Fonteera has been operating as a climate assassin…

Fonterra exposed as major player in global attempts to undermine climate action

Greenpeace Aotearoa is raising the alarm about Fonterra’s role in derailing international climate action. A new investigation has uncovered that globally, large agribusiness corporations are deploying the same playbook used by Big Tobacco and Big Oil to thwart regulations meant to protect the public interest.

The new report, entitled The New Merchants of Doubt, was released by Changing Markets Foundation today. It analyses the actions of 22 of the biggest meat and dairy companies across four different continents, and it specifically highlights Fonterra and the New Zealand livestock industry as key players in an industry-wide strategy to delay regulation of emissions from animal agriculture.

Nusa Urbancic, CEO of the Changing Markets Foundation stated: “This report exposes the blatant hypocrisy of Big Meat and Dairy, which claim to be committed to climate solutions while employing deceptive tactics to distract, delay and derail meaningful action. These tactics mirror those of Big Oil and Big Tobacco, allowing them to continue their harmful practices unchecked.”

Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Amanda Larsson says, “Big Dairy is New Zealand’s worst climate polluter, and now the New Merchants of Doubt report exposes Fonterra’s leading role in work to undermine climate action and avoid accountability for their climate pollution both here and overseas.”

Agricultural emissions, primarily from intensive dairy, made up more than half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. Animal agriculture is the single largest source of human-made methane emissions, which are 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

The New Merchants of Doubt report exposes how, rather than acting to meaningfully reduce livestock emissions, Big Meat and Dairy use a smokescreen of weak voluntary targets, green marketing and promises of future technological fixes that rarely materialise, while mobilising significant lobbying resources behind the scenes to delay and derail progressive legislation.

“The report highlights years of predatory denial and delay by New Zealand’s intensive dairy industry, spearheaded by Fonterra,” says Larsson.

“Not only are they lobbying the Government here in New Zealand to delay climate action, they’ve also spent millions of dollars in the last decade on lobbyists and political donations in the European Union and the United States.”

Fonterra also faces accusations of greenwashing, as the report reveals they spend more than five times their yearly research and development budget on marketing and PR, which often portrays New Zealand dairy as natural and environmentally-friendly. 

“It has now been more than 20 years since the first attempt to put a price on and reduce New Zealand’s outsized agricultural emissions,” says Larsson. “The Luxon-led Government has delayed this yet again, by scrapping He Waka Eke Noa, removing requirements for agriculture to enter the Emissions Trading Scheme, and failing to address dairying – the biggest source of climate pollution – in the draft Emissions Reductions Plan.”

“We all pay the price for the dairy industry’s failure to take responsibility for their pollution. The climate crisis is here and now. In New Zealand, communities are still recovering from extreme weather events, from Cyclone Gabrielle to the recent Wairoa floods.

“As the New Zealand Government once again backtracks on its responsibility to hold a polluting industry accountable for the damage it is causing, the report makes it clear that overseas customers are wising up to agri-industry greenwash and expect real action. Fonterra and the Luxon Government are doing farmers here in Aotearoa a disservice by trying to deny and delay the inevitable.”

…Watts is a pimp for big polluters when we need to be reorganising our food supply chains to adapt for the looming climate disaster.