Summarised by Centrist
Climate campaigners are using New Zealand’s EU free trade agreement to challenge the Government’s energy and farming policies, raising the prospect of consequences for exporters if a serious treaty breach is established.
Dutch environmental organisation Both ENDS has lodged a complaint with the European Commission alleging New Zealand has broken its climate commitments. Trade Minister Todd McClay rejects that claim, saying: “We haven’t breached any rules.”
The complaint targets changes including reopening offshore oil and gas exploration, weakening the methane target, removing the requirement to price agricultural emissions, and blocking climate liability lawsuits against major emitters.
Both ENDS says it seeks compliance rather than targeting exports. But it explains the leverage involved: “What the complaint can do is attach trade treaty consequences to the choices made”.
New Zealand agreed not to weaken environmental protections to encourage trade or investment. Climate-related trade sanctions require a panel finding that New Zealand materially defeated the Paris Agreement’s object and purpose, followed by failure to comply. The complaint remains unproven.
Editor’s note: Swarbrick denies involvement in the new complaint, but had previously asked the EU to investigate whether the Government’s climate and energy policies breached its trade commitments.
As Centrist reported in June, McClay accused her of “acting against the best interest of every single New Zealander and exporter for some form of political gain”.
Her earlier request was separate from the Both ENDS complaint, but establishes that the Greens had already sought European scrutiny of New Zealand’s domestic climate policies.
Newsroom describes the trade benefits as worth an estimated $1.8 billion annually. Official projections qualify that figure as up to $1.8 billion in additional annual exports by 2035. It is not an estimate of losses from this complaint or any eventual sanctions.
Image: Sébastien Bertrand
Re-published from the Centrist with permission
