{"id":154259,"date":"2025-11-26T07:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T07:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/154259\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T07:20:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T07:20:12","slug":"cop30-minister-defends-nzs-lack-of-committment-to-phasing-out-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/154259\/","title":{"rendered":"COP30: Minister defends NZ’s lack of committment to phasing out fossil fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Climate<\/p>\n

\nFile photo. Simon Watts said there wasn’t sufficient consensus on the language of this year’s roadmap.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Cole Eastham-Farrelly\n<\/p>\n

New Zealand didn’t sign up for a global plan to phase out fossil fuels because it already committed to “transition away” from them two years ago, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says.<\/p>\n

The United Nations climate summit, COP30 has ended with an agreement that didn’t explicitly mention cutting fossil fuels<\/a>, after a bitter row with oil-rich countries.<\/p>\n

More than 80 countries, including the UK and Pacific Island nations, also [https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/579744\/cop30-labour-criticises-lack-of-commitment-to-cutting-fossil-fuels<\/p>\n

signed a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels] – but New Zealand didn’t.<\/p>\n

The roadmap follows a landmark deal at the summit two years ago<\/a> to “transition away from fossil fuels” – the first time the main cause of climate change had even been formally acknowledged at the summit<\/p>\n

Simon Watts told Morning Report New Zealand committed to that, and the deal still stands.<\/p>\n

“We’re already undertaking a process to move to increase renewable energy in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

“New Zealand … at COP28 committed to a transition away, and that is the language that we support,” he said.<\/p>\n

“From our position, that agreement still holds.”<\/p>\n

There wasn’t sufficient consensus on the language of this year’s roadmap, he said.<\/p>\n

Watts said every country had “unique circumstances”, pointing to New Zealand’s high proportion of renewable energy, which reached 98 percent last month.<\/p>\n

“Most countries look at us and go ‘wow, that’s pretty impressive’, and it is, on the global stage.”<\/p>\n

Watts was not worried that New Zealand was awarded “[https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/579203\/new-zealand-awarded-dubious-fossil-of-the-day-at-cop30-climate-talks<\/p>\n

Fossil of the Day]” for the fourth time in five years, for its decision to weaken methane emissions policies.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a serious award, we don’t see it in that light,” he said.<\/p>\n

Labour’s climate change spokesperson<\/a> Deborah Russell said she was deeply disappointed New Zealand didn’t agree to the phase-out plan.<\/p>\n

Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick said it showed the government was not contending with the reality and science of climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File photo. Simon Watts said there wasn’t sufficient consensus on the language of this year’s roadmap. Photo: RNZ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[48,47,273,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-154259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-podcasts","16":"tag-public-radio","17":"tag-radio-new-zealand","18":"tag-rnz","19":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}