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🇳🇿 New Zealand /Environment & Climate

Election 2026: ACT wants to scrap net zero and link emissions cap to major trading partners

From NZ Herald · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Official statement New plan
  • New Zealand’s ACT Party has proposed scrapping the 2050 net-zero target and tying emissions reductions to a trade-weighted average of major trading partners.
  • Its climate policy would remove the Emissions Trading Scheme’s carbon price floor and return auction revenue to taxpayers through a proposed carbon tax refund.
  • ACT says the changes would reduce household costs, protect domestic factories and avoid imposing reductions that trading partners do not match.

New Zealand’s ACT Party wants to abandon the country’s 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas target and replace it with a benchmark linked to its major trading partners.

Under the proposal, New Zealand would follow a “trade-weighted average” of those partners’ emissions policies. China, the world’s largest emitter, is also New Zealand’s biggest trading partner. ACT says New Zealand should contribute to climate action, but should not accept steep and costly reductions if its trading partners do not demand comparable measures.

As a country, we should play our part. But that is the key: our part.

· ACT PartyThe party uses the statement to justify linking New Zealand’s emissions policy to the actions of major trading partners.

The proposal would repeal the Zero Carbon Act, which establishes the net-zero objective. ACT has long opposed the law, although its coalition partner National has supported it. ACT has also previously called for changes to New Zealand’s Paris Agreement targets or for the country to leave the agreement.

The party’s policy document would also change the Emissions Trading Scheme. It proposes removing the Government’s carbon price floor, allowing carbon auctions to clear at lower prices. ACT says the minimum auction price stood at $71 in 2026, while units traded in the low $50s on the secondary market, contributing to six consecutive failed auctions.

If New Zealand’s trading partners are not demanding the same costly emissions reductions, we should not sacrifice the jobs, wealth and livelihoods of New Zealanders.

· ACT PartyThe policy document argues against reductions that the party says trading partners do not match.

ACT says lower carbon prices would reduce costs at petrol stations, shops and power bills. It would return net auction revenue through a carbon tax refund. The size of the refund would depend on the auction price, and the party says a carbon price of about $55 currently imposes an estimated annual cost of about $478 on a household through fuel, electricity and other expenses.

The policy also includes measures intended to protect New Zealand factories competing with foreign producers facing lower or no carbon prices, discourage the conversion of farmland into carbon forestry and reduce regulatory barriers to new technologies.

This will act as an insurance policy for New Zealanders.

· ACT PartyThe party describes its proposed carbon tax refund as protection against higher carbon prices.
About this summary

Originally published by NZ Herald in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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