{"id":18376,"date":"2026-09-01T05:53:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18376"},"modified":"2026-09-01T05:53:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:53:56","slug":"winston-peters-takes-crack-at-christopher-luxon-over-paris-climate-agreement-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=18376","title":{"rendered":"Winston Peters takes crack at Christopher Luxon over Paris climate agreement stance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Foreign Minister has taken another crack at the Prime Minister’s political experience, after Christopher Luxon said remaining in the Paris climate agreement would be a bottom line in coalition negotiations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Winston Peters, who is also the leader of New Zealand First – a party campaigning on leaving the Paris Agreement, said Luxon’s position demonstrated that “experience does matter in politics”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It comes as Pacific nations\u00a0discuss a commitment to remain in the agreement<\/a>, which an international relations expert said was a “commendable goal”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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New Zealand First and ACT, National’s current coalition partners, have both indicated they do not support the commitment as it stands.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Luxon was asked on\u00a0Morning Report\u00a0<\/em>on Monday whether it was a\u00a0non-negotiable for National in coalition talks<\/a>\u00a0with those parties that New Zealand remains in the agreement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Luxon confirmed it was, because it was “common sense”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“We need to stay in the Paris Agreement because it only makes New Zealand poorer if we come out of it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/div>
National leader Christopher Luxon.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Nick Monro<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Peters, who is currently in Palau for the\u00a0Pacific Islands Forum meeting where climate change is high on the agenda<\/a>, was asked about the comments on Monday evening.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Asked if Luxon’s bottom line was a wise or unwise position, Peters said “the only comment you can make about that is that it’s a demonstration that experience does matter in politics”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Asked if Peters would make it a negotiable issue after the election, Peters said he was “quite astonished” at “comments being made here” and bottom lines “laid out there”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His disappointment was directed at those who did not “have the experience which is required under the MMP environment”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His judgment was also directed at the “mainstream media” who still considered the country in a first past the post environment, “We are most certainly not.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Just last week,\u00a0Peters took a crack at Luxon<\/a>\u00a0following National’s decision to announce legislation banning social media for under-16s, despite not having the backing of its coalition partners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s a lack of understanding of how the system works, but then again we did say that he hasn’t been around here long,” Peters said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Winston<\/div>
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.<\/p>\n

RNZ \/ Baz Macdonald<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Monday, Peters said the problem with the Paris Agreement for the Pacific nations – who were heavily committed to its target of limiting the global average temperature increase to well below 2\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels – was that four countries were responsible for the majority of emissions, naming China, Russia, the United States and India.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Part of the commitment was also to pursue efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5\u00b0C.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“This is our problem we’ve got here. Can we possibly actually honour the Paris Accord in any meaningful way, while that is going on?” said Peters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He acknowledged it was “very difficult” to say in Palau because it “doesn’t suit the conversation”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“But we’ll have to face reality about what the sign-up of Paris was, particularly since New Zealand’s position was secured in this context that food supply would be exempt.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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International relations expert Professor Alexander Gillespie told RNZ Palau was seeking a climate declaration that was in two parts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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First that the countries in the Pacific needed to remain committed to the Paris Agreement, and the to 1.5\u00b0C target.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Dr<\/div>
Professor Alexander Gillespie.<\/p>\n

Wayne Mead<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“That is a commendable goal,” said Gillespie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“You want the Pacific countries to be leading this challenge, because in terms of risk, they are at the forefront of the risk.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gillespie said the difficulty was that some countries, like the US, are no longer members of the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate change, let alone the actual Paris Agreement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“So some countries have completely walked away from climate change, whereas others have really weakened their efforts to try to confront it, like New Zealand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“So, on one level, you want the commitment to confront climate change, and that is disappearing rapidly,” Gillespie said, while on the other hand, money is needed for adaptation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He said around $3 billion was needed annually for the Pacific to adapt to climate change, and “even with the best scenarios, you’re maybe getting $1 billion of that coming through, or just under it at the moment”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Foreign Minister will continue to meet with other Pacific leaders, before Luxon heads to Palau on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Foreign Minister has taken another crack at the Prime Minister’s political experience, after Christopher Luxon said remaining in the Paris climate agreement would be a bottom line in coalition negotiations. Winston Peters, who is also the leader of New Zealand First – a party campaigning on leaving the Paris Agreement, said Luxon’s position demonstrated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18378,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18376\/revisions\/18378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}