95bFM Excluding international aviation and shipping from New Zealand’s emissions targets risks ‘international cooperative reputation’
10 December, 2025
Interview by Alex Fox, adapted by Lois Gonzales
The University of Otago’s Lisa Ellis says the government’s rejection of the Climate Change Commission’s advice to include international shipping and aviation in methane reduction targets could risk the country’s “international cooperative reputation”.
The government has recently rejected the Climate Change Commission’s recommendations regarding methane emissions targets, such as strengthening methane targets, after the government previously reduced emission targets from 24-47 per cent to 14-24 per cent.
This also includes the commission’s recommendation to include international shipping and aviation in New Zealand’s 2050 net-zero targets.
Due to how remote New Zealand is, 9% of the country’s emissions come from aviation and international shipping. This has raised concerns that the decision could impact the country’s climate crisis approach and international reputation.
Lisa Ellis, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Otago, told 95bFM’s The Wire that the country’s international travel and shipping affects the world through emissions.
“It's important for us to do our fair share by accounting for that,” she says.
“If we emit more than our share, we're being unfair to all of our international neighbours, especially to our Pacific neighbours who are disproportionately vulnerable, and we're also being bad ancestors because we're transferring the burden of climate adaptation onto our children and grandchildren.”
Ellis says that to support the country’s international agricultural exports and tourism industry, customers and trading partners need to be assured that “when they spend money in Aotearoa New Zealand, they're not supporting the destruction of the Earth”.
“I really worry that it reflects on all of us collectively. When our international trading partners look at our recent bad behaviour, they're not going to blame it on the specific government. They're going to think Aotearoa New Zealand is no longer a member of the coalition of high ambition.”
She suggests that following the Paris Agreement, ensuring net-zero targets and accounting for disproportionate aviation emissions helps ensure that New Zealand is a good economic partner.
“It makes us a better trading partner. So just from a purely economic, selfish position, I think the Climate Commission's advice was quite good.”
She says that the government’s rejection of the emissions recommendation will risk the country’s “international cooperative reputation”.
“We've heard from this government repeatedly that they're committed to [the Paris Agreement], but their actions are in exactly the opposite direction, and frankly, it's very hard for people like me to understand how their commitments and their actions could be so far apart.
Ellis says that New Zealand has previously been internationally praised for creating the Zero Carbon Act and setting up the Climate Commission, He Pou a Rangi, six years ago.
She says that following the right course means reflecting on the policies made in 2019 and listening to experts, such as those from the Climate Commission.
“Allowing these experts with a sort of mission to give us advice on how we can both transition to a low-emission economy and continue to flourish. And they have been doing that. And we ought to listen to them.
“Ignoring our own best source of advice is a huge mistake. And I don't think it's rocket science to do the right thing.”
