Greenpeace has slammed the Luxon Government for failing to protect future generations after releasing New Zealand’s latest climate target of a 1-5% additional reduction in emissions by 2035, saying it’s "about as useful as a screen door on a submarine."

Greenpeace spokesperson Amanda Larsson says, "This target is an absolute joke, yet the climate crisis is no laughing matter."

"Against the backdrop of Luxon’s war on nature, not only is this target too weak to protect our kids and grandkids from a disastrous future but there is no plan to achieve even the targets we already have."

Under the Paris Agreement on climate change, nations are required to submit a so-called nationally determined contribution (NDC) every four years. Each NDC must represent an increase in ambition on the last, which was submitted in 2021.

"Every parent and grandparent wants to pass on a safe and stable world to our kids. That requires brave and visionary leadership, both of which Luxon is lacking," says Larsson.

"Luxon’s vision for New Zealand seems to be a landscape ripped open by coal mines, a coastline dotted with oil rigs and fields crammed with cows, knee deep in mud and effluent."

The Luxon Government controversially overturned the 2018 ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, despite advice from MFAT that this is likely to breach our recent free trade agreements with the EU and UK. Coal mines are included in the list for fast-tracking, overriding community will and environmental laws. Luxon has also exempted New Zealand’s most polluting industry - dairying - from paying for its emissions through the Emissions Trading Scheme.

"Our country is doing worse on climate change than it was ten years ago," says Larsson. "This is what happens when you let polluters write the policy."

Documents released to Greenpeace under the Official Information Act reveal the unprecedented influence of the meat and dairy industry over environmental policy in Luxon’s Government. Emails, texts and briefings show that Federated Farmers, Dairy NZ and Beef + Lamb NZ have used privileged access to Ministers to draft policy on freshwater and climate change, to advise on Government communications and to push central Government to instruct local councils to weaken their environmental policies.

"The increasingly rampant wildfires, floods and cyclones we’re witnessing around us are a sign that our planet is sick. If governments won’t stand up to polluters to protect our kids and grandkids, as Luxon has shown he will not, then people will use the courts, protest and other means to save their children from climate disaster," says Larsson.

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