Good cop, bad cop - New Zealand at COP30: Is this really our climate message to the world?

New Zealand Climate Crisis: Blog 9

While world leaders gathered at COP30 recently to confront the escalating climate crisis, New Zealand showed up with… a speech that forgot to mention we’re lowering our methane emission reduction targets.

Behind the polite words sits a harsher reality: our government is rolling back climate action, sidelining science, risking our international reputation and talking about not meeting our international commitments — all while telling the world, that we remain committed to the Paris Agreement and its goals.

This while authoritative climate change bodies, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are united in their call for countries to urgently increase the rate at which emissions are being reduced in order to have a chance to meet the 1.5C global temperature increase target and avoid the worst impacts that will otherwise occur.

We are a nation lucky enough to have renewable energy, abundant food, and relative climate safety. But with that privilege comes responsibility — not excuses.

If we don’t take the necessary actions to address the climate crisis now, the real costs, financial and otherwise, will fall on those who come after us.

Climate justice matters. Our Pacific neighbours matter. Our future generations matter.
We either act — or we accept a future we wouldn't wish on them.