Oxfam Aotearoa Launches A Petition To Help Farmers

 Today, Oxfam Aotearoa launches a new campaign to
rally Kiwis across the country to demand greater climate
action. Oxfam kicks-off the campaign with a petition that
supporters will sign to get the New Zealand government to
help our largest polluting sector – industrial farming –
to evolve to sustainable food production.

Recently,
the Climate Change Commission released a report that will be
used by the government to plan what New Zealand will do to
reduce climate pollution and what target to present at the
2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in
Glasgow this year. Despite some progress being made, the
government’s current efforts will not do enough to protect
us or communities in the Pacific from runaway climate
destruction, or make sure that everyone has good, local food
in the future.

Large scale, intensive agriculture is
responsible for 48% of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Oxfam Aotearoa’s Campaign Lead Alex Johnston says that
right now, the government gives unsustainable farming
practices a free pass to pollute, and props up an intensive
model that treats farms like factories:

“The land is
overloaded with cows and chemicals that pollute waterways
and cause methane pollution to skyrocket. Farmers across the
Pacific are bearing the brunt of this inaction with more
frequent superstorms and heightened food
insecurity.

“The only way for Aotearoa New Zealand
to play our part in keeping within the crucial temperature
limit of 1.5°C is if the government does more to reduce
farming pollution and help farmers transition to sustainable
food production,” says Johnston.

Oxfam Aotearoa’s
aim is to push the government to set a bold international
target to cut New Zealand’s pollution by 2/3rds by 2030;
bring agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme so
everyone pays the full price for their pollution; and use
the revenue to help farmers shift to regenerative,
sustainable agriculture. Johnston says that bold targets are
necessary:

“By finally requiring intensive farming
to pay the full price for its pollution just like everyone
else, the government would spur investment in lower-impact
ways of growing food, and reward farmers that have been
doing this for generations with less fertilisers and fewer
cows.

“Revenue generated from big polluters could
then fund the advisory services, certification and
manufacturing facilities needed to allow any farmer in
Aotearoa to transition to diversified and climate-friendly
crops and livestock farming.

“This is an opportunity
to adjust our most polluting industry into one that is
sustainable, healthy, and positioned for success in the
future. And it’s a chance to ensure that farmers on the
frontlines of climate breakdown can survive and thrive
too.”

Notes 

· The
Climate Change Commission advice would plan to reduce New
Zealand’s domestic emissions, reducing net carbon dioxide
emissions to 55% below 2010 levels by 2030, and net
agricultural methane, 8% below 2010 levels by 2030.The
reductions proposed in agricultural methane are not within
the IPCC pathways for staying within 1.5 degrees
warming.

· The government is also reviewing New
Zealand’s Paris Agreement target for emissions reductions
by 2030, our ‘Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)’,
which the Commission found to currently be inconsistent with
global efforts to stay within 1.5C of global
heating.NewZealand is one of the countries yet to
increase its NDC target ahead of COP26, the global climate
talks in Glasgow in November.This target is planned to be
met through a combination of domestic emissions reductions
and the purchase of offshore carbon credits.

·
Thecombined
climate plans submitted by countries account to a dismal 1%
emissions reduction, which is way off track from the
targeted 45% reduction needed to limit global warming below
1.5 degrees, and to avoid disastrous impacts on vulnerable
communities.

· See here
for 2021 Emissions report from the Beehive.

· Oxfam
New Zealand’s 2020 report ‘A
Fair 2030 Target for Aotearoa’found that New
Zealand’s fair share of effort for keeping to 1.5 degrees
would be no less than an 80% reduction from 1990 levels by
2030.

· Download Oxfam’s report, ‘Confronting
Carbon Inequality,’ for more information.

·
The
richest 10% accounted for over half (52%) of the emissions
added to the atmosphere between 1990 and 2015. The
richest 1% were responsible for 15% of emissions during this
time – more than all the citizens of the EU and more than
twice that of the poorest half of humanity
(7%).

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