Report calls for ‘serious effort’ to tackle NZ climate challenge

New Zealand must focus on reducing carbon emissions rather than continuing to rely heavily on forest offsets, a government agency report has said.

In his report on the country’s long-term climate targets, Simon Upton, NZ’s parliamentary commissioner for the environment, says that serious action to tackle the country’s emissions “can be delayed no longer”.

“The scale of the climate challenge is such that, to meet it, the shape and structure of our economy and our rural environment will look very different,” he says.