New Zealand: Politics
Cabinet ETS decision a “hospital pass” for incoming government
19 Dec 2022
A former head of the International Energy Agency’s climate change unit has described the Cabinet’s rejection of the Climate Change Commission’s recommended changes to ETS settings as a “hospital pass” for the incoming government.
Forestry ETS changes pass
5 Dec 2022
Among the bills to pass into law in Parliament’s recent Urgency session was the extension of the penalty transition regime for small forestry owners who remove trees.
1.5 degrees not just aspirational: Shaw
25 Nov 2022
Climate change minister James Shaw says New Zealand’s commitment to 1.5 degrees is “absolutely essential.”
Govt calls for submissions on Sustainable Biofuel Obligation Bill
22 Nov 2022
The government is calling for submissions on the Sustainable Biofuel Obligation Bill, which is intended to simplify the transition from liquid fossil fuels to low-emissions fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport.
Co-chair of new Māori ministerial committee compares climate change battle to fight against fascism
11 Nov 2022
Iwi leader and environmentalist Mike Smith – who has said climate change demands sacrifices like those made to defeat fascism – has been appointed a co-chair on a new Interim Māori ministerial advisory committee on climate change
National leader on gas policy and climate change
7 Nov 2022
By Ian Llewellyn - Energy & Environment | With almost a year to the election, National leader Christopher Luxon has been giving some indications of his party’s policy including a return to more gas exploration and a different approach to pricing agriculture’s biological emissions.
National argues climate change ambitions put NZ at risk
25 Oct 2022
By Ian Llewellyn - Energy & Environment | National MPs are arguing that New Zealand will put its interests at risk if it attempts to move faster than the rest of the world on climate change issues.
Aussie farmers oppose methane pledge because of NZ’s "dying towns"
19 Oct 2022
New South Wales farmers are citing New Zealand’s proposed farmgate greenhouse gas emissions pricing as a reason to oppose Australia signing the global methane pledge.
Government’s climate policy “bovine scatology”: Winston Peters
17 Oct 2022
Winston Peters condemned the government’s agriculture emissions policy as “bovine scatology -pure unadulterated bulldust,” at the New Zealand First conference over the weekend.
Is government move to protect productive land too little, too late?
19 Sep 2022
The government has released a National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land, aiming to enhance protection for the country’s most productive land and provide security for domestic food supply and primary exports.
Government promises favourable consent regime for renewable energy
12 Sep 2022
By Ian Llewellyn - Energy & Environment | Energy minister Megan Woods says a new regulatory framework for the development of offshore wind should be in place by 2024 and a discussion document was being put together on strengthening national direction for renewable electricity generation and transmission.
Pacific to receive half of New Zealand’s climate assistance
22 Aug 2022
Half of New Zealand’s climate change assistance to the developing world has been earmarked for the Pacific, and half of that will go towards mitigation,
Save rail redux
12 Aug 2022
In 1983 the then-Labour MP Richard Prebble toured the country on a save rail campaign.
Shaw “quietly confident”
25 Jul 2022
Climate Change Minister James Shaw declared himself “quietly confident” of winning an upcoming vote for the Green Party co-leader position at a press conference this morning.
Government looking at carbon tariff
19 Jul 2022
In an ideal world New Zealand would replace the current system of allocating NZUs to trade exposed industries with a border adjustment levy, climate change minister James Shaw told the Environment Select Committee yesterday.
PSA launches Vote Climate campaign
18 Jul 2022
The Public Service Association (PSA) has launched a campaign to get voters to support local government candidates who will invest in reducing transport emissions.
Government must balance potential costs of reducing gas
18 Jul 2022
By Ian Llewellyn - Energy & Environment | A Cabinet paper on the Government’s development of the Gas Transition Plan says it must reduce the use of gas but balancing the potential costs in doing that will require shifting priorities over time.
Minister defends government's preferred light rail option for Wellington
6 Jul 2022
Transport minister Michael Wood says an Infrastructure Commission review of the government’s preferred rapid transport plan for Wellington, which found it “fundamentally counter-productive” to achieving carbon reduction targets, fails to take account of emission reductions resulting from densification.
Climate change puts another nail in quarter acre pavlova paradise’s coffin
29 Jun 2022
It’s been a long time coming but the climate emergency is finally beginning to reshape the future of our cities. This morning’s announcement that the government is throwing its support behind light rail from the Wellington railway station to Island Bay is driven by a vision of a much higher density city where the motorcar takes a back seat to public transport, cycling and walking.
Greenpeace, Green Party call for stronger action on deforestation imports
23 Jun 2022
Greenpeace says a bill aimed at preventing unsustainable timber imports will do little to save the world’s rainforests or end human rights abuses.
Parliamentary questions often a let down
21 Jun 2022
There is a climate crisis, but deflating people’s tyres is not okay, that in a nutshell was climate change minister James Shaw’s response to a written question from ACT’s climate change spokesperson Simon Court.
Cabinet reshuffle and the conservation challenge
20 Jun 2022
By Ian Llewellyn - Energy & Environment | The major change for the energy and environment sector in Jacinda Ardern’s Cabinet reshuffle was the ‘demotion’ of Poto Williams from the police portfolio to conservation.
Climate change looms large over indigenous biodiversity discussion document
10 Jun 2022
Climate change is repeatedly identified as one of the major threats to indigenous biodiversity in a government discussion document launched yesterday.
International commision votes to allow use of more climate-friendly refrigerants
23 May 2022
A secretive vote in the arcane and Byzantine world of international safety standards late last month may lead to a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from home heating and cooling systems in the coming years.
ERP: Oppposition politicians respond
17 May 2022
The National Party has condemned much of the first Emissions Reduction Plan, released yesterday, as corporate welfare but welcomed the announcement that $710 million had been earmarked for helping agriculture to lower its emissions.
ERP: Lobby groups respond
17 May 2022
The nation’s lobby groups have responded to the release of the government’s first Emission Reduction’s Plan with a flood of press releases. What follows is a summary of some of the praise, condemnation, and observations contained in that deluge.
Shaw worried carbon budgets don’t go far enough
13 May 2022
“I know that there are those who will be worried that these emissions budgets do not go far enough. I'm one of them,” climate change minister James Shaw told Parliament yesterday in the opening speech of a special debate on the government’s recently announced emission budgets.
Tree loss in tropics casts doubt over climate goals
3 May 2022
Tropical regions of the world lost 11.1 million hectares of forest cover in 2021, new data shows, calling into question global pledges to end deforestation by 2030.
ACT takes aim at National's climate policies
4 Apr 2022
The ACT Party is using National's recruitment of the NZ Initiative's former senior economist and leading proponent of the "leave it to the ETS" school of thought, Matt Burgess, to criticise the opposition party's climate policies.
Minister responds to PCE hydrogen letter
25 Mar 2022
Minister for the environment Megan Woods has thanked the parliamentary commissioner for the environment, Simon Upton, for his letter highlighting concerns about the development of a green hydrogen industry but says the government sees real potential for the gas in New Zealand's energy mix.
NZ Green Investment Finance confident it’s not funding muscle cars
9 Mar 2022
The chief executive of the NZ Green Investment Finance told the Finance and Infrastructure Committee, this morning, that the green bank had sufficient safeguards in place to ensure it didn’t end up funding muscle cars instead of EVs.
Tariffs on 290 environmentally beneficial goods flushed down the loo
4 Mar 2022
A 5% tariff on composting toilets is one of more than 290 tariffs on environmentally beneficial goods flushed down the loo in the recently announced free trade agreement between the UK and New Zealand – but will it really make any difference?
Trickle-down carbon savings celebrated with passing of Clean Car Bill
18 Feb 2022
Parliament heard yesterday that the Clean Car Discount Bill was a gift to low-income families, a tax on hardworking families, the cause of a massive uptick in the sales of high polluting vehicles and the means by which 12 megatons of carbon emissions will be avoided.
Tackling climate change at the core of government's economic strategy: PM
9 Feb 2022
Tackling climate change will be at the core of the government's economic strategy, prime minister Jacinda Ardern declared in her first parliamentary speech of the year yesterday.
Government delays one of its “most significant” climate change policy changes
22 Dec 2021
Cabinet agreed on Monday to delay an amendment to the Resource Management Act that was trumpeted by climate change minister James Shaw as “one of the most significant policy changes to address climate change this term” when it was passed in June last year.
Bluegreens co-chair Scott Simpson returns to climate change role
7 Dec 2021
Scott Simpson, the co-chair of the National Party’s Bluegreen advisory group, is back as the party's climate change spokesperson following the reshuffle by new leader Christopher Luxon.
Law changed to avoid public carrying the cost of oil and gas field clean-ups
6 Dec 2021
The Crown Minerals Act has been amended to avoid the public being left with the bill for the decommissioning of oil and gas fields.
Luxon's climate change credentials
1 Dec 2021
The new leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon, touted his climate change credentials in his maiden speech.
James Shaw's response to Newsweek article
30 Nov 2021
Climate change minister James Shaw has responded to a Newsweek ranking that placed New Zealand 16th on a list of the 20 least ambitious countries in tackling the climate crises.
Experts, activists say health equity needs more emphasis in fight against climate change
30 Nov 2021
Nearly three decades after the world first came together to address climate change, its impact on human health was a focus of talks this month in Glasgow, Scotland.
Corporate net zero targets: Greenwashing or genuine climate action?
24 Nov 2021
From Big Oil to Big Tech, major companies are promising to go net zero and wash away their carbon sins. But critics say the corporate climate pledges are a smokescreen.
Aotearoa first country to pass climate reporting law
22 Oct 2021
AOTEAROA has become the first country in the world to pass a law requiring companies to disclose climate-related risks and opportunities.
Close to 50% of cars will be ICE vehicles in 2050 under current policy settings
28 Sep 2021
Up to 45% of New Zealand’s light vehicle fleet would remain ICE vehicles in 2050 if the government relied on the Clean Car Discount and Standard alone, the minister of transport, Michael Wood, has said in response to a written question from National’s David Bennett.
Is a climate emergency delayed, a climate emergency denied?
16 Sep 2021
The Government has pushed back its Emission Reduction Plan by five months leading to accusations that its declaration of a climate emergency, last year, was “virtue signalling.”
Latest Energy Quarterly sees NZ breaking all the wrong records
10 Sep 2021
MBIE’s latest Energy Quarterly is a litany of negative records, with coal imports and emissions from electricity generation hitting all time highs, and the share of renewable generation the lowest since 2013.
Questions, questions, questions….
26 Aug 2021
Climate change is the existential question of our age, so it’s hardly surprising it generates more than a few parliamentary written questions…. but too often those questions reveal more about the petty political point scoring of New Zealand politics than the climate emergency.
Emissions reduction consultation document on its way
25 Aug 2021
The government is set to launch a consultation document on its emission reduction plan, possibly as soon as next week.
Public sector ill-prepared for climate change
17 Aug 2021
Eighty-five percent of public organisations responding to a Ministry for the Environment survey admitted to not documenting how climate change will impact their ability to carry out their functions.
First six months of rebate scheme to cost up to $57 million
11 Aug 2021
The Government estimates the first six months of its clean car rebate scheme will cost up to $57 million.
Speaker declines motion to debate IPCC report
11 Aug 2021
It may be, in the words of the UN Secretary-General, a “code red” alert for Planet Earth, but the speaker of the House yesterday declined a motion to debate the IPCC’s latest report.
Govt launches strategy backing wood-based heat sector
Today 11:00am
By Pattrick Smellie | Forestry biomass could replace as much as 40% of fossil fuel-generated process heat by 2050, but access to supply, regulatory settings and business cases for converting to wood-based heat sources are required, the Government says in a series of documents released yesterday.
Council buys dairy farm to help clean up Lake Rotorua
Tue 21 Oct 2025
Bay of Plenty Regional Council has bought a 266-hectare dairy farm in the Lake Rotorua catchment and plans to retire it from production to reduce nitrogen entering the lake.
Govt releases updated emissions projections
13 Oct 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Ministry for the Environment has released updated emissions projections to 2050, which show significant differences to the Climate Change Commission's recent projections for the same period.
NZ’s government wants tourism to drive economic growth – but how will it deal with aviation emissions?
Wed 22 Oct 2025
By Robert McLachlan, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University | Following a brief dip during the COVID pandemic, aviation is back in a growth phase.
Emails show forestry lobby fought Gisborne crackdown as slash clean-up drags on
26 Sep 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Sustainable land use advocates are accusing Eastland Wood Council of stonewalling efforts to tighten forestry rules, after correspondence between the group and the local council was released under the Official Information Act.
Govt to ease climate reporting thresholds, water down liability
Wed 22 Oct 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | The rollback of climate change reporting requirements has produced a wave of relief in corporate New Zealand as managed investment funds and listed companies with annual revenue under $1 billion are exempted.
