With Green Party co-leader James Shaw holding the climate change portfolio, Parliamentary criticism of the government's climate change policies in the main comes from the right side of the spectrum.

And Greenpeace, under Norman's leadership, has become something of a de facto opposition from the environmentalist/left side of politics.

 

So, Carbon News asked Greenpeace to answer the same questions we put to National and ACT earlier this week.

 

Greenpeace provided us with the following statement from Greenpeace's lead agriculture campaigner Christine Rose.

“New Zealand’s Government needs to rapidly ramp up its climate policies to meaningfully cut climate pollution, especially from our biggest emitter: agriculture.

“The Climate Action Tracker states that New Zealand is not expected to meet its current NDC with existing policies and actions. The proof of the pudding is in the eating: what use is a lofty climate target if none of the legwork is being done to achieve it?

“Intensive dairying is a key climate culprit, responsible for the majority of methane emissions. Alongside that, synthetic nitrogen fertiliser - a key enabler of intensive dairying - contributes more greenhouse gases than our entire domestic aviation industry.

“If Ardern’s Government is to truly walk the talk on climate action, it must bring in ambitious policies to cut synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, lower cow stocking rates and catalyse a shift away from intensive dairying toward regenerative organic farming.

“Dairying is to New Zealand what coal is to Australia, or tar sands are to Canada - polluting industries that must change. We’re reaching a point where the practice of cramming as many cows as possible onto the land, to the detriment of rivers and climate, is seen as outdated. If we act now to transform agriculture, we can have a healthy farming future, where rural communities are thriving and farmers grow food in a way that cares for the land, water and climate.”