Climate change advocacy

What is DairyNZ doing?

DairyNZ is committed to dairy farming playing its part in transitioning to a low-emissions economy alongside the rest of New Zealand. We advocate for fair and scientifically robust emissions reduction targets that account for the warming impact of methane.

We believe New Zealand’s climate change targets should reflect the latest science and consider what other countries are doing, the mitigation technologies and tools available to farmers, and the economic, social, and cultural impacts.

We also believe an accurate picture of the warming impact of methane is critical to inform the target review. Understanding the warming impact of emissions will better inform New Zealand’s contribution towards limiting the impacts of climate change and allow policy decisions around burden sharing to take place transparently.

The Climate Change Commission is reviewing New Zealand’s targets at present. The Government has also established a separate, independent review of the methane target, as a result of the advocacy efforts of DairyNZ and other sector organisations. The outcomes of these reviews are due in December 2024 and the Government is expected to make its decisions in early 2025.

DairyNZ remains actively engaged in these processes on behalf of farmers.

We are active in other climate policy areas too, for example advocating to have agriculture removed from the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme; contributing technical expertise to MPI’s development of a nationally consistent greenhouse gas calculation methodology; and providing feedback to the Ministry of Regulation review of agricultural products. For more on these and other DairyNZ advocacy, check out the submissions below.

Submissions