Pledges neglected, says head of NZ group at Rio

New Zealand has failed to carry through on a number of promises made at the Rio Summit in 1992.

The man who led New Zealand's delegation to the original Rio Earth Summit says green awareness has not been matched by environmental action in the 20 years since the pledges of the global convention.

Alongside 172 countries at the 1992 summit, New Zealand promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions, improve water quality and protect biodiversity.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Beyond Rio report, made public yesterday, rated New Zealand's progress since the promises of 1992. It concluded successive governments had failed to stem the loss of marine and terrestrial biodiversity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, integrate sustainability into education or clean up waterways.

The report comes just weeks before the Rio+20 global summit, which marks the 20th anniversary of its predecessor.

Retired Waikato farmer Rob Storey, a former environment minister who led the New Zealand delegation to the original summit, said pledges made by many nations had not been "taken seriously".

"Like a lot of other countries at the summit we hoped for better outcomes than what we have to date. We haven't really matched the increase in awareness with deeds. We haven't done as much as we could have."

Among its key findings, the report found agricultural expansion and intensification was the primary factor in the increasing pollution of lakes, rivers, streams and groundwater, with "little or no political appetite to regulate the quantity or quality of the major pollution source; dairy farming".

A former president of Federated Farmers, Mr Storey agreed with WWF chairman Dr Morgan Williams that the report was a "wake-up call", but said the dairy industry had become a "whipping boy" in the rush to lay blame for declining water quality.

Attacks on the dairy industry had not been balanced against the environmental footprint of expanding cities and urban areas, Mr Storey said.

Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills said he accepted farming had an environmental impact, but it was not "the sole cause for everything bad about the environment".

Prime Minister John Key said National had poured money into methane and nitrate emission research and had put pressure on Fonterra and Federated Farmers with campaigns targeting dirty dairying.

He accepted the country's environmental record may have worsened over 20 years but said it was "hard to believe" other nations would be doing better than New Zealand. "I actually think New Zealand's record is pretty good."