Hipkins teases Labour’s emissions-reduction ambitions

Tuesday, 9 September 2025

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has signalled a higher-ambition climate emissions reduction future for the country, if Labour formed the next government.

Labour would restore credibility to the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), put a price on agricultural methane emissions, and make sure “every community will have the support that they need to thrive in a climate-friendly economy”, he said in a speech at the Environmental Defence Society’s Climate Change and Business Conference in Auckland on Monday.

At the conference, the Government’s “minimum viable product” (MVP) approach to emissions reduction came under fire from climate activists.

Minimum viable product is a term being used to indicate the minimum level of emissions cuts New Zealand could make, and not to provoke such anger among trading partners that it disrupts trade.

“The anti-science brigade have been getting their way too much,” Hipkins told conference delegates, promising the release of Labour’s climate change framework next year.

“Under Labour the cost of pollution had got up to $90 a tonne, but has now fallen to around $50. Climate pollution is probably the only thing that’s got cheaper under this government,” Hipkins said.

Hipkins also appeared to signal that under Labour financial support would be available for people whose homes became too dangerous to live in as a result of climate change, and that if New Zealand failed to meet its emissions reductions targets under the Paris Agreement, it would buy overseas carbon credits to fund the shortfall.

“Yes, we will ensure we meet our commitments,” Hipkins said under questioning from conference MC Kathryn Ryan.

New Zealand is not on track to meet its pledges of a 50% reduction in emissions from 2005 levels by 2030.

Hipkins said the next Labour-led government would prioritise jobs, health, homes, and would win re-election on the cost of living.

“Climate action helps us to deliver on those core priorities, whether it's creating good, well-paid jobs in low carbon businesses, or making homes warmer and cheaper to run,” he said.

National’s climate change minister, Simon Watts, will address the conference on Tuesday, giving him the opportunity to respond to Hipkins’ jibe that it had “trampled on almost every area of vital progress” the country was making.

In January, New Zealand announced its second round of emissions reduction pledges, referred to as Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs.

Its next target would be to reduce emissions by 51% to 55% from 2005 levels by 2035.

The Auckland conference came shortly after an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice that states countries like New Zealand have legally binding commitments to meet their pledges.

Jessica Palairet, executive director for Lawyers For Climate Action New Zealand, told the conference: “We have to play by the rules, and I think there's real question marks around whether or not we're doing that, both in terms of the level of ambition set in our NDC, but also the policies that we're pursuing to implement it.”

“We've got obligations as a country to exercise the best efforts,” Palairet said.

She doubted 51% to 55% represented New Zealand’s best efforts.

“The Climate Change Commission suggested we could have a target of around 67%, significantly higher than 51% to 55%,” she said. “They called this NDC the minimal viable product.”

And, she said: “When the Ministry for the Environment conducted analysis on what our fair share would look like, they suggested that strong adherence to equity principles would have reductions up around 80%.”

Climate science expert Andy Reisinger told delegates to the conference that the world was not acting fast enough to address climate change, and was close to busting through the level of emissions that would take the globe past 1.5 degrees warming, which the Paris Agreement was supposed to prevent.

If New Zealand missed its target, it was unlikely there would be a “bill” to pay in financial terms, the conference heard, unless the government of the day decided to buy overseas carbon credits, which Hipkins suggested a Labour government would do, though only as a “last resort”.

Economist Eric Crampton, from the New Zealand Initiative economic think tank, said the Paris targets were not legally binding.

“There could be risk if we are substantially out of line with everybody else, but everyone is going to be failing to meet, which is very bad,” he said.

The G20 group of countries was on track to miss their pledges, he said.

He advocated for strengthening the ETS, and putting a price on methane emissions in cooperation with other countries.

There was largely a consensus on the need for action, Crampton said, but warned: “I think it's politically durable, so long as people aren't convinced that there is some other agenda behind it.

“There are folks like me who really want to have those ways of mitigating emissions. There are others who have pretty strong views about what society should look like at the end of getting towards strong net emission reductions,” he said.

“When those things get tied together, it turns into conspiracy theories about what their hidden agenda might be, and that turns into political fragility.”

Last Week ACT called for the Paris agreement to be changed, criticising it for threatening to close down industry and farming in New Zealand, and see it replaced with industry and farming in other countries with less carbon-efficient industries.

US President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement.

Wang Xiaolong, China’s ambassador to New Zealand, told the conference: “Whether you walk away, or don’t walk away, climate change is happening.”

He said China, New Zealand’s largest trading partner, was ahead of delivering on its pledges.

“It’s important we all keep our end of the bargain,” he said.

China was on track to achieve its goals of peak carbon by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2060, he said, though he hoped both may be achieved more quickly.

“We in China are willing to do our part,” Xiaolong said.

However, he said, China’s first priority was to drive economic growth to improve people’s lives. “We need to avoid green protectionism.”

The conference heard there were growing concerns among Kiwi climate activists that Australia may be about to leapfrog New Zealand on climate ambition.

Australian climate change authority chair Matt Kean hinted in August that may be about to happen in the run-up to the November United Nations COP 2025 climate change conference in Brazil.

Hipkins told the conference: “We should still be pitching for 1.5 degrees as our overall target, and New Zealand should be doing the right thing.”