The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) and Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) welcome the release of the Climate Change Commission’s 2026 Emissions Reduction Monitoring Report, describing it as a significant wake-up call for New Zealand, and supporting its key recommendations.
As clearly illustrated on page 6 of the report, the country’s second emissions budget (2026-2030) is at significant risk, and current plans are insufficient to meet the third emission’s budget (2031-2035) or the 2030 biogenic methane target. According to the Commission New Zealand needs to more than double its current pace of decarbonisation efforts, and if additional action does not occur in the next one to two years, key climate goals will be out of reach.
SBC Chief Executive Mike Burrell says the report serves as significant wake up call.
“We welcome this report and thank the Commission for their important independent, evidence-based advice that helps successive governments, and our businesses, stay on track. Its central finding is one our business leaders are taking seriously, acknowledging current plans are not enough to meet the second or third emissions budgets, and the time available to us to close those gaps is rapidly disappearing.”
Mr Burrell says the Commission’s findings reinforce the economic case SBC and CLC set out earlier this year in their Driving Sustainable Growth report, which the Commission itself has cited in the new report.
“The modelling of our Driving Sustainable Growth report clearly shows that acting now on a focused shift toward an innovation-driven, productivity-led economy, underpinned by affordable and plentiful renewable energy and stable policy settings would add $22 billion a year to GDP by 2035, while also contributing to greater emissions reductions. Closing the budget gaps and unlocking that growth is the same task. The recommendations in our report, from electrification and renewable energy to innovation and productivity, present a practical pathway to do both. What we need now is to act on them.”
CLC Convenor and Genesis CEO Malcolm Johns says the Coalition’s signatories are already moving and are ready to move faster with the right settings in place.
“Our signatories are already investing in the transition right across renewable energy, electrification and in low-emissions technology because they recognise both the risk and opportunity before them. The Commission’s report confirms what our members are already seeing in their own investment decisions – the transition is real, the economic case is stronger than ever, and delaying action is no longer an option. What business needs now is confidence that the country is moving in the same direction, at the pace this new report demands.”
Mr Johns says business leaders stand ready to work alongside government to deliver on the significant task that’s required.
“Ambition alone won’t reduce our emissions; we need investment to make that happen. Investment at the scale this transition requires depends entirely on confidence in the pathway ahead. The Commission has given us an independent, expert and robust assessment of our current state – where the risks lie and what needs to happen next. The task now is to get on and do it, together, so we don’t squander the economic opportunity before us.”
SBC and CLC will shortly release a joint pre-election briefing paper setting out their priorities for the incoming Government. The views represent the 140 businesses making up the two networks, who together contribute 42 percent of New Zealand’s private sector GDP.
SBC’s Mr Burrell says, “Business is not standing still, and neither should policy. The Commission is clear that decisions taken now, or delayed action, will significantly shape whether our third emissions budget and 2050 target remain in reach. Our pre-election briefing paper will set out what we believe the next Government needs to prioritise to give business the confidence to invest at the pace and scale this transition requires, in order to harness the opportunity before us as a nation.”
