Certainty crucial to emissions cuts – Watts
Wed 20 Aug 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says that policy certainty is the Government’s primary lever for unlocking private capital and meeting climate targets, telling a carbon forestry conference that ETS settings are 'locked' through 2030.
Story copyright © Carbon News 2025
Forestry sector could take legal action over ETS changes
14 Aug 2025
By Liz Kivi | The forestry sector is threatening legal action against the Government over changes to legislation intended to limit whole farm-to-forest conversions in the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Tairāwhiti group warns forestry rollback will fuel future disasters
7 Aug 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | A sustainable land-use advocacy group has slammed government proposals they say will gut forestry protections and roll back hard-fought gains made in the wake of Cyclone Hale and Gabrielle.
Foresters seek time; end to using ETS as a land use tool
16 Jul 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Production and carbon forestry owners have begged the environment select committee to at least give the sector more time to come up with workable rules for legislation intended to cap forest planting on farmland.
Reforms 'ignore root causes' of catastrophic slash discharges
16 Jul 2025
The government's proposed slash and forestry management changes ignore the root causes of "illegal and catastrophic discharges" from clear-felling sites on erosion-susceptible land, according to an expert.
4000 hectares of forest uprooted by extreme winds in Nelson-Tasman storms
15 Jul 2025
By Liz Kivi | Foresters are facing a massive clean-up and tens of millions of dollars worth of damage from recent climate change-fuelled storms at the top of the South Island, with initial reports of 4000 hectares of wind-thrown production forestry.
‘Weaponised timber torpedoes’ – call for forestry changes after flooding
14 Jul 2025
By Liz Kivi | A climate scientist is calling for changes to forestry practices, after the second ‘one-in-one-hundred-year’ climate-fuelled flash flood to hit the top of the South Island in two weeks unleashed a torrent of pine forest waste, wiping out homes and a campground.
Emissions Trading Scheme needs deep reform - commissioner
11 Jul 2025
The government’s attempt to limit forestry conversions on rural land is unlikely to lead to meaningful change, according to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
Bill to limit farm-to-forest conversions passes first reading
27 Jun 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | The government's bill aiming to limit farm-to-forestry conversions in the Emissions Trading Scheme passed its first reading in Parliament this week, however concerns were raised over rushing it through under urgency, with less than two weeks allowed for public submissions.
Forestry the missing piece in Fieldays climate change discussions
19 Jun 2025
By Elizabeth Heeg | OPINION: Fieldays was packed with climate change announcements from the government last week, but none about the sector with arguably the most important role: Forestry.
