The bill amends the Climate Change Response Act 2002, resetting the 2050 biogenic methane emissions reduction target from 24–47% to 14–24% below 2017 levels and making several related changes to climate legislation.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (committee of whole house, first reading, second reading, third reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
These are claims MPs made in Parliament’s debate — not verified facts.
This Bill amends the Climate Change Response Act 2002, the statute that sets New Zealand's legally binding climate targets. Its main change is to lower the 2050 target for reducing biogenic methane - the methane produced largely by livestock and farming - from a 24-47% cut to a 14-24% cut, measured against 2017 levels. The separate goal of net zero for long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide by 2050, and the interim 2030 methane target of a 10% reduction, are left unchanged. The Bill also extends, by two years, the deadline for the government to set the emissions budget covering 2036-2040. The revised methane range is tied to a "technology-led" approach that leans on new tools to cut farm emissions rather than reducing herd numbers. Farmers and the agricultural sector are the parties most directly affected.
The change follows a coalition commitment and an independent review of whether the previous methane target was consistent with the science of methane's warming effect. Supporters, including the government, argue the old 47% figure was unrealistic and economically damaging, that a lower range is enough to ensure methane causes "no additional warming," and that pairing it with investment in emissions-reducing technology protects food production and rural livelihoods. Critics, including climate advocates and some scientists, argue the softer target weakens New Zealand's overall climate ambition, does not reflect the full advice available, and shifts a greater share of the burden onto other sectors while betting heavily on technologies that are not yet proven at scale.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.