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Accelerating climate change under urgency

Written By: - Date published: 2:02 pm, December 11th, 2025 - 7 comments
Categories: climate change, ETS, national, Parliament, same old national, science - Tags:

The Government has introduced the Climate Change Response (2050 Target and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.

The bill is short but will have significant consequences if passed.

It will put into legal effect the Government’s decision to half methane emission reduction targets. It will require the Minister to consider the implications for food production when setting future emissions targets. It will extend the date for the next emissions budget to be set. And it will remove the requirement that New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme unit settings and price control regulations accord with New Zealand’s nationally determined contributions. Take that Paris Accord obligations.

I have discussed two of these proposed changes in previous posts, this one on the change to the methane target and this one for the Government’s desire to welch on its Paris Accord obligations.

Both of these changes are significant and will have long term repercussions.

In terms of passing these changes none of them need to be done quickly. A responsible Government would open the debate up to the public and listen to the many voices that would otherwise inevitably be raised against these proposals.

So what does this Government do?

You guessed it. The Government intends to pass the Bill under urgency and not refer it to a select committee. Even under a truncated time period.

Marc Daalder at Newsroom has the details:

Legislation to implement the methane target change, as well as to fulfil the controversial policy to de-link the carbon market from New Zealand’s Paris climate commitments, was introduced on Monday. Watts confirmed it would be passed under urgency through Parliament with no select committee period.

This is despite Ministry for the Environment officials telling MPs during last week’s scrutiny hearings they had advised Watts on ways the legislation could be passed with time for the public to have their say.

Watts announced the change to the methane target for agricultural climate pollution in October and in early November announced the Emissions Trading Scheme policy shift as well. However, the legislation was not introduced for another month. It’s not clear what caused the delay – drafting is unlikely to be the cause, as the bill itself is only four pages long.

Nor is it clear why the major policy changes must be passed before the end of the year. While some smaller, technical changes in the legislation need to be made by December 31, both the methane target change and the carbon market de-linking have no inherent deadline.

Clearly the Government wishes to avoid the select committee process where huge numbers of individuals would take the chance to oppose what is being proposed. This is politically embarassing for them. There are plenty of intelligent and passionate people in the country who will take the opportunity to voice their opinions.

As an example for the Fast Track Amendment Bill even though submissions were open for just over 10 days there were 2158 submissions received with about 95 percent opposed.

The use of urgency is to avoid even limited analysis of the proposal is deeply cynical. These are decisions that will mostly not come into force for some time and they will have long term implications. There is no justification for preventing the public to have a say.

7 comments on “Accelerating climate change under urgency ”

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  1. Drowsy M. Kram 1
    11 December 2025 at 8:31 pm

    There is no justification for preventing the public to have a say.

    Meh, like ‘the public’ matters. Views contrary to the CoC's are deranged – Sorted Rule!

    The dead select committee theory [Newsroom, 5 June 2025]
    In the morning, Regulation Minister David Seymour dismissed the tens of thousands of submissions opposed to his Regulatory Standards Bill, saying they only happened “because somebody figured out how to make a bot make fake submissions that inflated the numbers”.

    “Act billboards say End Division by Race, but it is actually more like Defend Division by Wealth. Act is the make-the-rich-richer party and, at the same time, the attack-the-poor party.” — Nicky Hager.

    Public asset sales will benefit CoC pollies – NAct1 is government buy and for the sorted.

    Asset sales legislation clears another hurdle [Stuff, 15 June 2012]
    Controversial asset sales legislation has scraped through its latest stage in Parliament amid claims from Opposition parties and protesters that the Government is ignoring public opinion.

    Public win referendum on asset sales [2 Sept 2013]
    The final count on the petition of 327,224 valid signatures significantly exceeded the number required by nearly 20,000, and makes it the largest citizens initiated referendum petition ever.

  2. PsyclingLeft.Always 2
    12 December 2025 at 10:24 am

    Re NAct1 and Accelerating climate change ? IMO this is the only drilling that we should be supporting….not oiling the wheels of fossil fuel drillers.

    The elusive Antarctic ice and sediment core that could answer sea level rise questions

    What it contains will help answer the question of when, and how drastically, the West Antarctic ice sheet might collapse as the climate keeps warming – releasing up to five metres of sea level rise as it goes.

    At the moment, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is protected by ice shelves – floating layers of ice formed by the ice sheet flowing off the Antarctic continent.

    Without them, the flow of ice into the ocean will accelerate, meaning the potential collapse of the entire ice sheet.

    Antarctic Research Centre director Rob McKay – who will be offering support from New Zealand – says it's clear from ice sheet models that ice loss can rapidly accelerate.

    "We just don't know under what threshold, what temperature change that would occur under. Is it 1.5°C, 2°C, as defined by the target of dangerous climate change, by the Paris Climate Agreement?"

    Co-chief scientist on the ice, Molly Patterson "Globally, there's about 68 million people that live near coastlines and are going to be exposed to these hazards that are caused by sea level rise," Patterson says.

    We have been, and are increasingly…warned.

    There is no time to hesitate, she says.

    "These systems can move quickly, they can move in unexpected ways. On one level that doesn't scare me, but to have that knowledge and to not act on it, that scares me."

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/581612/the-elusive-antarctic-ice-and-sediment-core-that-could-answer-sea-level-rise-questions

  3. Darien Fenton 3
    12 December 2025 at 4:41 pm

    I've been watching. These urgency debates are when you really see who's got it in the opposition. Labour's team on this ; Megan Woods, Deb Russell, Rachel Brooking and Damien O'Connor because he does know about farming have been amazing. They know their stuff, particularly Megan.Also Steve Abel from the Greens stand out as MPs who know what they are talking about and making the Minister look like an amateur : Passing bills under urgency is grinding, tough work. They've been on this one since this morning after finishing after midnight last night and I suspect won't pass until after the dinner break. Of course it will pass because CoC has the numbers. Worst speech of the day : Parjeet Parmar on a we love farmers and Labour hates them and we just think we can print money kind of rant. A couple of others too, including from NZ First and the rest just jumping up and saying "I move that the question be now put" (because they really want to go home).

    • Ad 3.1
      13 December 2025 at 9:20 am

      Good on you Darien for the vigil. I don't have the stomach for it.

      This smashing of Parliament, and of decade-long bipartisan agreements across the House, is going to take multiple terms to recover from.

      In just one term we have had bipartisan agreements over housing, resource management, water, local government, and the actual Paris agreement trashed by National, ACT, and NZFirst.

      And for all this democratic vandalism we have weak economic performance, weakened social cohesion, and thousands of people permanently flying away.

      I truly loathe this government.

  4. PsyclingLeft.Always 4
    13 December 2025 at 8:59 am

    MS, dont know if you had seen, or heard of, Groundswill's CO2/Methane promotional tour by one Will Happer. Definitely not a Climate Scientist..but absolutely a Climate Change denier since way back…A Fossil, talking to other Fossils about Fossil Fuel…

    Climate contrarian William Happer to speak in Gore

    An American professor and ardent opponent of the scientific mainstream’s conclusion that human emissions are driving global warming will speak in Gore on Friday.

    https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360913089/climate-contrarian-william-happer-speak-gore

    Ol Will Happer. Denier.

    Happer has no formal training as a climate scientist, and says that his beliefs about climate change come from his experience at the Department of Energy, at which he supervised all non-weapons energy research, including climate change research

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Happer

    Like many (IMO all) of the other so called Climate experts wheeled out by groups like Groundswill they are IMO Deluded/Monetary Interest/Just plain Contrarian…..But, sadly also seemingly on the right track according to NAct1.

    Desperately need them gone next year..while we can still attempt to bring NZ back from the edge….