ACT proposes NZ leave Paris climate pact if it can't make pledge weaker

Wednesday, 10 June 2026

The ACT Party is proposing a weaker pledge for the Paris climate pact that would split off agricultural emissions.

It suggests that if New Zealand is not able to change this pledge it should leave the climate pact, first signed in 2016, altogether.

There are already severe questions about whether New Zealand will reach its first Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2030.

On current projections it will be almost impossible to do so without buying carbon credits offshore, which Finance Minister Nicola Willis has rejected. The Government has also de-linked the Emissions Trading Scheme from the Paris target altogether.

Read more:

• Nicola Willis: Govt not prepared to ‘send billions overseas’ to meet Paris pledge

• Could it be a case of when, not if, Government dumps NZ’s 2030 Paris ‘pledge’?

• Creative accounting by Govt on climate guarantees a more expensive future

ACT agricultural spokesperson Andrew Hoggard said the Government should go further and write a new NDC that was less ambitious, particularly for agriculture.

“New Zealand’s farmers are the most emissions-efficient in the world, yet they are treated like carbon villains and punished by climate targets that ignore the difference between methane from livestock and carbon from fossil fuels,” Hoggard said.

Agriculture makes up almost half of New Zealand’s emissions profile and is not covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme.

ACT proposed that a new NDC should recognise a “split gas” approach under which agricultural emissions contribute to “no additional warming” while other carbon emissions would actually drop.

An open letter from climate scientists to the Government last year warning that a “no additional warming” target ignored scientific evidence and ignored the fact that methane at current levels contributed to around 30% of current global warming.

The party has also suggested that the general Emissions Reductions Plan be revisited and set around “realistic targets”.

Hoggard said the current climate settings were allowing farmland to be converted to forestry but just saw overseas producers fill the gap for food.

ACT climate spokesperson Simon Court said the new NDC was needed because “the Paris agreement is broken”.

“ACT is the only party with the courage to stand up to the UN, rewrite the rules, and secure a future where farming grows.”