Climate change legislation

New Zealand’s climate change legislation

New Zealand has several emissions reduction targets. These are an important part of meeting our international climate change obligations and are set out in legislation. The targets require us to achieve:

• Net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases except biogenic methane by 2050.
• For biogenic methane (from agriculture and waste):
  • 0 percent reduction below 2017 emissions by 2030
  • 24-47 percent reduction below 2017 emissions by 2050

Net zero means balancing the greenhouse gases emitted with the amount removed from the atmosphere. It can be achieved through a combination of emissions reductions and emissions removals, e.g. carbon sequestration from planting trees.

New Zealand’s targets take a ‘split gas’ approach, which recognises that biogenic methane does not need to reduce to net zero like other greenhouse gases. This is because biogenic methane behaves differently in the atmosphere and has a different warming impact.

To stay on track to meeting the 2050 targets, the Government has adopted a series of five-yearly emissions ‘budgets’ that set the amount that can be emitted over that period. The Government also maintains an emissions reduction plan, with details on the actions that will be taken to meet each emissions budget. Read more on the Ministry for the Environment website.

The Government has established a Climate Change Commission that provides independent advice and monitors progress towards New Zealand’s climate change goals.

DairyNZ engages across these government processes to ensure that the resulting legislation and policies are fair and practical for dairy farmers. For more, see our Advocacy page.

Target reviews

The Government has two reviews of New Zealand’s 2050 emissions reduction targets underway. One is led by the Climate Change Commission, and the other is an independent review set up by the Government specifically looking at the methane target. Decisions are expected in early 2025. DairyNZ has been involved in both processes.

Addressing agricultural emissions

The Government has committed to keeping agriculture out of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme and introducing fair and sustainable pricing of on-farm emissions by 2030.

It has a strong focus on investing in tools and technologies for farmers to reduce emissions, including via AgriZero and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.

It is also establishing a Pastoral Sector Group to address methane. DairyNZ will be represented on this along with Beef + Lamb New Zealand, DCANZ, Federated Farmers, and other key stakeholders. For more, see this press release from June 2024.

We will continue to update farmers once further details of these Government processes are available. In the meantime, we encourage farmers to understand why there is a heightened focus on farm emissions, understand where they come from on a farm, and how to manage them. You might also be interested in finding out more about the greenhouse gas research that DairyNZ is undertaking.

Dairy companies are working actively on these issues too and should be able to provide information on your farm’s emissions numbers, and actions farmers can consider that will help improve efficiency.