New Zealand’s government has been accused of going “full-Trump” and “choosing climate change denial to serve livestock lobbyists” after it formally adopted new methane reduction targets.
The country’s right wing and conservative coalition government this week approved a new, watered-down target to reduce biogenic methane emissions by between 14% and 24% below 2017 levels, by 2050. It replaces an earlier ambition to cut methane emissions by between 24% and 47% by 2050.
New Zealand’s move followed a review of the targets last year by its Ministry of Environment, based on the principle of ‘no additional warming’, which redefines the aim of climate action as stabilising, rather than minimising, the warming impact of emissions, according to climate campaigners.
The NZ government said its revised target was based on “a range of advice” and would “protect production whilst substantially reducing New Zealand’s farm emissions”.
It remained “committed to our domestic and international climate change commitments, including net zero by 2050”, said climate change minister Simon Watts.
“Agriculture will continue make an important and fair contribution to achieving this reduction,” he added.
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To support its move, the government was investing more than $NZ400m with industry “to speed up the development and roll-out of methane-cutting tools”.
The first was expected on farm in 2026, with up to 11 available by 2030. These include innovations like EcoPond, which cuts effluent pond emissions by over 90 percent, alongside advances in genetics, feed and farm management, it added.
“Technology has the potential to deliver emissions reductions, while enabling the sector to grow,” Watts said.
“It’s expected that if 30% of farmers take up the technologies expected to be available before 2030, total agricultural emissions could reduce by between 7% and 14% over the next decade. That’s on top of any reduction in emissions that may come from efficiency gains on-farm or changes to farm systems.”
However, the country’s pivot to lower methane targets – which it said reflected “the short-lived nature and different warming impact of methane domestically” – has come under fierce criticism from global climate campaign groups.
“New Zealand is the world’s biggest dairy exporter,” said Amanda Larsson, campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa – New Zealand.
“If we back down on cutting emissions from our most polluting industry, you can bet other big livestock producers will jump on the bandwagon. That could be game over for the climate. The concept of ‘no additional warming’ is a political trick dressed up as science. It pretends current methane emissions are fine – when in reality, they’re fuelling the climate crisis.”
Her comments were echoed by professor for environmental change Paul Behrens from Oxford University, who said New Zealand was “setting a dangerous precedent that other governments must not follow”.
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Cutting methane – a short-lived but highly potent greenhouse gas – was “not an optional extra”, he added. “It will deliver the rapid reductions in warming needed to avoid dangerous tipping points. This is especially important given how fast temperatures are rising and how damaging the impacts already are.”
The new targets gave New Zealand’s livestock industry “license to continue pumping out methane, which will have a huge continued upward pressure on global temperatures”, said Martin Bowman, UK campaigns manager at NGO Foodrise.
It comes as imports of New Zealand produce into the UK have soared over the past year, helped in part by the free trade agreement signed in February 2022. Dairy imports were up 81.2% year on year in the first half of 2025, according to AHDB.
Beef imports have also risen significantly. Analysis of HMRC data by Trade Data Monitor shows volumes have jumped by 494% in the two years to July, with NZ beef products going on sale in the likes of Sainsbury’s in recent months.
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