As world leaders are gathering in Belém for the biggest climate meeting of the year, COP30, many will be scrambling to be able to demonstrate signs of progress or good news.

New Zealand will have nothing to offer but a whole-hearted embrace of its new role as an international climate pariah.

In just the past month we’ve been hit with a steady barrage of policy changes that not only undermine New Zealand’s ability to meet its climate targets, but send a depressing signal to the world that we’ve simply given up.

The Government has almost halved New Zealand’s 2050 target for reducing biogenic methane to just a 14-24 percent reduction, even though agriculture is by far the largest single contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions.

The move requires unpicking our flagship climate law and effectively abandoning the cross-party consensus we had reached on tackling climate change.

Just last week the Government put a further torch to the bipartisan consensus that once anchored our climate policy by proposing sweeping changes to the Zero Carbon Act – including reducing the role of our independent Climate Change Commission.

It has also significantly reduced the number of companies required to publicly disclose their climate impacts – despite New Zealand being the first country in the world to introduce a climate-related financial disclosures scheme, once hailed globally as a model of transparency.

These recent reforms are really just the cherry on top of a two-year climate demolition job.

After all, since coming into power, the Coalition Government has reopened the door to offshore oil and gas exploration and is actively trying to subsidise new fossil fuel development.

It has slashed public transport initiatives and incentives for electric vehicles, delayed pricing agricultural emissions, and is even expanding coal mining in the 21st century.

New Zealand’s recent decisions show a government willing to ignore science, sideline independent advice, and sacrifice long-term climate stability at the altar of short-term political convenience.

The Prime Minister is doggedly pursuing a narrow, self-interested view of the world – with his priority seemingly on keeping his Coalition partners happy rather than looking at what’s best for New Zealanders.

But does he seriously believe the international community hasn’t noticed New Zealand’s pivot towards overt, self-interested hypocrisy?

What we do at home matters.

Pacific countries are repeatedly pleading for leadership and action from Aotearoa as their very livelihoods are on the line and climate change poses an existential threat to their lives. Our choices have moral consequences.

They also have economic ones. Our free trade agreements with both the European Union and the United Kingdom enshrine environmental and climate commitments, including binding obligations to uphold the terms of the Paris Agreement.

The Government’s climate backsliding has direct consequences for its purported focus on economic growth – and perversely, by putting these trade agreements in jeopardy, we’re shooting our primary producers in the foot.

For those of us working on environmental and climate issues every day, it sometimes feels like we’re shouting into a void.

It’s endlessly frustrating to have to feel like a constant doom monger – because there can be a better way.

The Government could be doing things like driving investment in renewable energy and incentivising household solar and insulation schemes to keep New Zealanders’ homes healthy and warm and bring down household power bills.

It could be investing in nature-based solutions like large-scale tree planting or wetland restoration, which will also help our native species thrive, bring long-term economic benefits, and help communities to be resilient in the face of more extreme weather.

Instead, we’re embracing fossil fuels and archaic thinking – and frankly, we’re setting up future generations to fail.

At this week’s climate negotiations, New Zealand will be forced to confront a hard truth. Because whether the Government likes it or not, the global market and consumers are demanding more sustainably produced products and for countries to back their words with concrete action.

Sadly, the credibility and international respect New Zealand has thrown away virtually overnight is going to take time to rebuild.  But make no mistake: investors, trading partners, and our Pacific neighbours are watching closely.

Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb is CEO of WWF-New Zealand.