Fossil of the Day Award – New Zealand

Kiwi Officials Claim: Our Cows’ Emissions Don’t Really Stink Up the Climate

17 November 2025, Today at COP30, New Zealand earns the Fossil of the Day for weakening its methane target in the middle of a methane crisis – and doing so while insisting everything is fine.

With ministers meeting in Belém for the Global Methane Pledge, the world is already far off track from its (already modest) goal of cutting methane 30% by 2030 – far below what science requires. This was New Zealand’s moment for courage – and it chose to cower.

In a move that stunned observers but delighted the livestock lobby, the government quietly lowered its methane ambition from a 24-47% cut to just 14-24% – a range so weak that New Zealand’s own Climate Change Minister admitted the 14% end “is not aligned with 1.5°C.”

Methane emissions are rising faster than at any other time in history. It is a gas more than 80 times more powerful than CO₂ over 20 years, responsible for nearly half of New Zealand’s emissions and 0.5°C of global warming to date. Yet New Zealand has embraced the controversial “no additional warming” framing – they argue that biogenic methane from animals like cows should be treated differently from other greenhouse gases because it is short-lived in the atmosphere. But science says all methane behaves the same in the atmosphere.

New Zealand’s backslide comes just as agribusiness influence reaches peak visibility – with former livestock lobbyists now promoted to government seats, giving the methane industry front-row control of methane policy.

And even in Brazil, in the year leading up to COP30, ten of the world’s largest livestock and fertiliser corporations bankrolled nearly 200 Brazilian social-media influencers – from models to doctors to news anchors – to promote industry-friendly narratives, from “meat for health” to glossy music-video beef propaganda.

Against this backdrop, New Zealand’s retreat sends a signal that other high-methane countries may now feel emboldened to follow. Ireland has been considering a similar move. Once one domino falls, the others could soon follow.

This is not leadership. It is not science-based. And it is certainly not consistent with the Paris Agreement or with the UNFCCC principles of equity and responsibility.

For choosing political convenience over planetary safety – and for lighting the fuse on a global methane race to the bottom – New Zealand fully deserves today’s Fossil of the Day.

-ENDS-

Notes to Editors

1. Photos and video of today’s award ceremony: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11ySqWPNUPEEpmXQke_TLiv3oiXCHiVEm?usp=drive_link 
2. Fossil of the Day happens every day at 6pm in the COP30 Blue Zone, Zone D, Action Area 1. (This is near the delegation offices and before you get to Meeting Room 1.)
3. The Fossil of the Day awards (which now include Ray of the Day and the Solidarity for Justice Award) were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their ‘best’ to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.

Contact: Attila Kulcsar, CAN International, akulcsar@climatenetwork.org, +44 7472 124872 (WhatsApp)