ACT has unveiled a major overhaul of New Zealand’s climate policy, promising to scrap the country’s Net Zero target, repeal the Zero Carbon Act and return carbon auction revenue directly to households as it puts jobs, farming and international competitiveness at the centre of its Election 2026 pitch.
Party leader David Seymour says New Zealand should continue reducing emissions but should not impose costs on businesses and households that are significantly greater than those faced by the countries Aotearoa trades and competes with.
The policy represents a fundamental challenge to the climate framework that has shaped New Zealand policy over recent years and sets up another clear dividing line heading towards the election.
Net Zero in ACT’s sights
At the heart of ACT’s proposal is the removal of the existing Net Zero target and repeal of the Zero Carbon Act.
Rather than setting New Zealand’s emissions ambitions primarily through the current domestic framework, ACT wants the country’s emissions cap benchmarked against major trading partners.
The party argues a small export-dependent economy risks damaging itself if domestic producers face carbon costs significantly higher than their international competitors.
Seymour says shutting down an efficient New Zealand operation achieves little environmentally if production simply moves offshore to countries where the same goods are manufactured with higher emissions.
ACT describes that as exporting jobs rather than cutting global emissions.
Critics of abandoning Net Zero are likely to argue that weakening long-term targets risks reducing the pressure required to decarbonise the economy and could affect New Zealand’s international climate credibility.
The election debate will therefore centre on whether New Zealand should maintain ambitious domestic targets or more closely align its obligations with the climate policies of major trading partners.
Carbon money returned to households
ACT is also proposing what it calls a Carbon Tax Refund.
Under the policy, 100 percent of net government revenue generated through carbon auctions would be returned to New Zealanders rather than retained by the Crown for other spending.
ACT argues households are already carrying carbon costs through petrol, electricity, freight and ultimately the price of goods at the supermarket.
Returning auction revenue would, according to the party, make the climate system more transparent and prevent carbon pricing from becoming another source of government revenue.
It fits ACT’s broader Election 2026 message of opposing new taxes and reducing the size and spending power of government.
ETS floor price would go
ACT also wants to remove what it describes as the Government-imposed artificial minimum price for Emissions Trading Scheme auctions.
The party argues the carbon market should be allowed to determine the price rather than government intervention effectively establishing a floor.
That could reduce the cost of carbon units if market conditions drove prices below the existing settings.
But the proposal would also open a significant debate over whether a lower carbon price would provide businesses with enough incentive to invest in lower-emissions technology.
Farms versus forests
One of ACT’s strongest messages is directed at rural New Zealand.
The party wants to reduce incentives for productive farms to be converted into carbon forestry and says permanent forest owners should carry the long-term costs and risks associated with those forests.
ACT argues the existing carbon market can distort land-use decisions by making forestry more financially attractive than food production.
Simon Court, ACT’s climate change spokesperson, says the country should not weaken its food-producing capacity by allowing productive farmland to disappear beneath large-scale pine planting simply to generate carbon credits.
The issue has particular relevance across regional and rural communities where land-use change can affect employment, schools, local businesses and the long-term economic base of small towns.
For Māori landowners, however, changes to forestry incentives can carry additional complexity.
Whenua Māori can face restrictions around ownership structures, financing, access, terrain and alternative productive uses. Any substantial redesign of forestry and ETS settings will therefore be closely watched for its effect on Māori landowners as well as conventional farming operations.
No agricultural emissions tax
ACT is also ruling out a new tax on agricultural emissions.
Instead, the party says New Zealand should concentrate on technology capable of reducing emissions without sacrificing agricultural production.
Its policy would seek to remove barriers to cleaner technologies while opposing additional climate taxes.
The argument is straightforward: if farmers can reduce methane and other emissions through innovation rather than reducing production, New Zealand should pursue that path.
The challenge will be whether technological improvements can deliver emissions reductions at the speed and scale required to meet international obligations.
Protecting major employers from carbon leakage
Steel, cement, aluminium and food production are also specifically in ACT’s sights.
The party wants carbon assistance restored where New Zealand businesses can demonstrate they face a genuine competitive disadvantage against overseas producers paying lower or no carbon costs.
ACT argues there is no environmental gain when an efficient New Zealand factory closes only for production to shift to a higher-emitting international competitor.
The concept is commonly described as carbon leakage — emissions are not necessarily eliminated but effectively transferred to another country.
For workers, the argument is less technical.
It is about whether climate policy helps transform existing industries or accelerates the disappearance of well-paid jobs.
That question has become increasingly significant as regional communities confront major industrial closures and uncertainty over energy supply and costs.
ACT wants a different Paris deal
ACT says it would also seek a better deal for New Zealand under the Paris Agreement.
The party argues New Zealand contributes only a small proportion of total global emissions and should play its part without imposing substantially greater economic costs on itself than comparable countries.
That would potentially place New Zealand’s international commitments back on the negotiating table.
ACT’s position is that climate ambition should be measured against what trading partners are actually doing rather than what New Zealand can theoretically promise.
Climate versus cost becomes an Election 2026 battleground
The policy creates a stark choice for voters.
ACT is not proposing that New Zealand abandon carbon pricing or stop reducing emissions altogether.
Instead, it wants a significantly different architecture — lower intervention in the ETS, carbon revenue returned to households, stronger protection for trade-exposed businesses, fewer incentives for productive farmland to become carbon forestry, no agricultural emissions tax and climate targets tied more closely to international competitors.
But scrapping Net Zero and repealing the Zero Carbon Act would be a major shift in the country’s climate direction.
That means the political argument will not simply be about whether New Zealand should act on climate change.
It will be about how quickly, at what cost, who pays and whether emissions reductions achieved in New Zealand translate into genuine reductions globally.
For Māori, those questions intersect with whenua, forestry, farming, employment, energy costs, coastal communities and the growing effects of a changing climate on te taiao.
And with Election 2026 approaching, climate policy is rapidly becoming an economic policy as much as an environmental one.
ACT’s message is clear: cut emissions without exporting Kiwi jobs. The question for voters will be whether that represents a more economically sustainable climate strategy — or a retreat from the scale of action a warming world increasingly demands.
#ACTParty #DavidSeymour #SimonCourt #Election2026 #ClimatePolicy #NetZero #ZeroCarbonAct #EmissionsTradingScheme #ETS #CarbonTax #CarbonRefund #ClimateChange #CarbonEmissions #CarbonForestry #FarmingNZ #Agriculture #WhenuaMaori #MaoriLand #Forestry #KiwiJobs #CostOfLiving #NZEconomy #ParisAgreement #TeTaiao #MaoriEconomy #PakihiMaori #Aotearoa #NZPolitics #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea
