The methane debate: what the open letter got wrong

NZ and Ireland's primary methane-emitting culprit – the dairy cow. (Image: NZME)

Wed, 11 Jun 2025

It is easy to claim that New Zealand is using an “accounting trick” to measure methane emissions, as a group of scientists did last week in an open letter, as reported on the front page of the Financial Times. This claim, apparently in reaction to the recent independent methane panel report, is misleading at best and could be read as implying bad faith on the part of the government. However, the open letter succeeds only in telling half a story, and telling it twice.Untangling the threadsThere’s been plenty...

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