New Zealand: Politics
ETS impact modelling problems in Australia
3 Jun 2008
Economists in Australia are struggling to measure the impact on the economy of a proposed 90% emissions cut by 2050.
EU experience shows cement industry's ETS worries 'exaggerated'
30 May 2008
Cement firms’ worries about international competitiveness effects and leakage, caused by emissions trading, may be exaggerated, according to a new analysis by carbon market experts.
Mercury emission threat reappears
30 May 2008
A mercury poisoning disease may make a comeback as climate change dries out wetlands.
Banrock Station boss: make money by carbon sinking local reserves
30 May 2008
Money should be made from reserves by turning them into carbon sinks.
Federated Farmers: We did not fund secret report
29 May 2008
Federated Farmers is strongly denying rumours that it is one of the secret funders of last month's NZIER report which predicts that the emissions trading scheme will cost New Zealand 22,000 jobs and billions of dollars.
Farmers: Green move to get agriculture into ETS early "not a runner"
29 May 2008
Farmers say a Green Party attempt to get them into the emissions trading scheme early as part of a deal for the party’s support for the climate change bill is not a political runner.
Dunne lines himself up for an anti-ETS bill vote, or a household protector victory
29 May 2008
Is United Future leader Peter Dunne lining himself up for a vote against the emsission trading scheme? Or accolades for delivering a policy concession from the Government?
Stern's global climate change deal proposal
29 May 2008
Several Carbon News readers describe the latest Stern plan to manage climate change an essentail reading.
EXCLUSIVE: Greens push for early ETS entry for agriculture
28 May 2008
The Green Party is looking to force the Government to bring agriculture into the emissions trading scheme early.
ACT: climate change a "pup" but let's have a tax
28 May 2008
ACT has released a 20 point plan for the country, including managing climate change.
Time for industry to step up to the plate on climate change
28 May 2008
The Council of Trade Unions is calling on industry to be more constructive on climate change issues.
Australians shift on free emissions
27 May 2008
The New Zealand Government is continuing to rule out free carbon credits to most sectors of the economy, despite a shift in thinking in Australia on the issue.
Greens reveal more of their conditions for ETS support
27 May 2008
The Greens have set out some of their policy demands for support of the emissions trading bill.
Parker rules out personal carbon rationing
27 May 2008
Climate Change Issues Minister David Parker is ruling out a personal carbon emissions trading scheme here.
Forum heads to the select committee
26 May 2008
A high-powered group of business and community leaders who back an emissions trading scheme will appear before the finance and expenditure select committee today to answer questions from MPs.
Dunne does a dance on ETS costs to households
26 May 2008
UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne says the party’s future support of both the Emissions Trading Scheme and the biofuels legislation currently before Parliament hinge on the issue of the impact on household budgets.
Assumptions used to delay fossil fuel in ETS may prove unreliable
26 May 2008
Key data behind the Government’s major decision to defer including liquid fuels in the emissions trading scheme until 2011 rely on multiple assumptions which may prove unreliable.
Greenpeace: Good initiatives at risk under polluter subsidy plans
26 May 2008
Greenpeace welcomes today's Green Party announcement that all state houses will be properly insulated within five years but warns initiatives like this could be at risk if big polluters get their way.
"Aspirational goal" G8 ministers told climate change not waiting for any of us
26 May 2008
Ministers from G8 Countries say their leaders are likely to agree only aspirational goals when they meet in July.
EXCLUSIVE - National answers questions on ETS: No bill backing even if it gets all it wants
23 May 2008
In response to a series of questions from Carbon News, National says it will bring farmers into the emissions trading scheme, but won’t vote to pass it before the election – even if it can get all six of its key demands into the draft legislation.
Price for NZ First support of ETS not paid yet
23 May 2008
A Budget commitment to help the elderly meet the rising cost of electricity under an emissions trading scheme is just the first concession of several being demanded by New Zealand First as its price for supporting the climate change bill.
Fiscal forecast: ETS will lose Govt $121m net in first commitment period
23 May 2008
The Government will allocate $2,151 million in emission credits and earn $2,030 million from them in the first Kyoto commitment period, making a net loss of $121 million.
Dunne: More than tax cuts needed for households to counter ETS price rises
23 May 2008
There will be justifiable outrage and anger if the Government decides to treat these cuts as effectively a down payment on increases in the cost of living brought on by the Emissions Trading Scheme, according to United Future leader Peter Dunne.
Cullen quizzed on multi-billion ETS surplus from sale of credits
23 May 2008
The Government will make a net revenue gain from the emissions trading system of up to about $159 million a year between 2013 and 2018 - $795 million over five years - and "perhaps" $1b to $1.5 b a year out to 2030.
Leadership forum to front select committee on ETS
22 May 2008
The Leadership Forum on Climate Change will be the next group to front-up to the Parliamentary select committee as jockeying continues over who will and will not support the climate change bill that will bring in the emissions trading scheme.
Business-as-usual Budget for climate change
22 May 2008
Today’s Budget will not be the big-bang for the environment that Australians experienced with their Budget last week, but will contain some steady-as-she-goes policy continuation.
ANALYSIS: National delivers heavy emitting friends into tougher hands
22 May 2008
National’s decision to abandon support for the emissions trading bill has effectively delivered more power to parties wanting a tougher line on heavy emitters.
Australia's first carbon trade cheap and symbolic
22 May 2008
Australia’s first carbon trade was well below international market levels and should be viewed as largely symbolic, says local trading house OM Financial.
Ka kite Rio Tinto….kia ora ETS
21 May 2008
The Maori Party has launched a stinging attack on big businesses that it says are trying to bully the Government into transferring the cost of their greenhouse-gas emissions on to taxpayers, suggesting that the party is going to give the Government the numbers to pass the emissions trading scheme into law.
ETS bill vote support scenarios favour bill’s passage
21 May 2008
Labour could carry its emissions trading bill through the House with a maximum of 70 votes to 51 if it gathers the support of its current coalition partners and independent MP Taito Phillip Field.
The "windfall" controversy: Long term fiscal impact of ETS will be in Budget
21 May 2008
EXCLUSIVE: Finance Minister Michael Cullen has told Carbon News he will reveal Treasury’s long-term fiscal projections for the emissions trading scheme in tomorrow’s Budget.
Smith: Labour needs to come clean on multi-billion dollar ETS windfall profits
21 May 2008
National yesterday again challenged the Government to release the official papers that reveal just how much the Government is set to profit from the emissions trading scheme, saying it is "apalled" it has been denied leave to table official documents in Parliament.
Top climate change academics shun National's bid to delay ETS
21 May 2008
An academic group from Victoria University's Institute of Policy Studies has come out publicly with "several arguments" why the legislation should not be deferred.
Fitzsimons: Bill must have teeth or I won't bite
20 May 2008
Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says that she will not be voting for the climate change bill if it does not have any teeth.
ETS delay will cost taxpayers money, says trader
20 May 2008
Carbon trading house OM Financial is warning that delaying the introduction of New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme will cost taxpayers money.
Let’s cool it, says Key, and sends ETS into a spin
19 May 2008
The National Party has kicked the emissions trading scheme into touch, saying it won’t support the bill in its present form and wants to delay passing it until after the election.
Process all above board, says ETS chair Chauvel
19 May 2008
Finance and expenditure select committee chair Charles Chauvel is defending the way in which the committee has dealt with the climate change bill, and says that work is on schedule to report back to Parliament next month.
Nats could be punished, say environment groups
19 May 2008
Environment groups are warning the National Party that it could be punished at the ballot box for failing to take decisive action on climate change.
ETS will trim Kyoto bill $909 million, pushes Key further out on policy tightrope
16 May 2008
The emissions trading scheme will avoid a 15 to 50 million tonne rise in emissions between 2008 and 2012, Climate Change Issues Minister David Parker has told Parliament, in what appears to a ground preparing statement ahead of National leader John Key’s ETS policy announcement this Sunday.
Expert tells businesses: Wake up, it’s happening now
16 May 2008
New Zealand businesses that fail to act now on carbon face a real risk of losing market share, with many already feeling the financial impact of the new way of doing business, says PWC partner Julia Hoare.
Official report urges focus on sustainable policies
16 May 2008
A two-year-old Ministry of Research Science and Technology paper has been dusted off because it urges the government to adopt policies that accelerate the channeling of resources into value added food technology.
At last, Nats to tell us where they stand on the ETS
15 May 2008
National will break its silence on Sunday on where it stands on the Government’s emissions trading scheme.
Bluffing over aluminium: EU says post-2012 ETS impact may be 'negligible'
15 May 2008
While Rio Tinto talks of its Bluff aluminium smelter being put on a path to closure by the proposed emissions trading scheme, the European Union says the effects of including the sector in its scheme “may well be negligible” once a new post-Kyoto international agreement is in place.
Angry Greens ask Government: Is it us or them?
14 May 2008
The Government is in the firing line from both National and the Greens over its performance on the emissions trading scheme.
Fletcher role revealed, Government extends credit assistance further than sought
14 May 2008
The advice from Fletcher Building which helped persuade Government to make a further $1.3 billion in emission credit concessions to heavy emitters is revealed in an appendix to the interim report of the select committee considering the emissions trading bill.
Select committee probing fate of refrigeration gases in ETS
14 May 2008
The select committee considering the emissions trading bill is looking into “significant issues” including how to treat synthetic greenhouse gases.
Big landowners take centre stage at ETS hearings
14 May 2008
Some of New Zealand’s biggest land owners today will put their argument to Parliament’s finance and expenditure select committee for more flexibility under the emissions trading bill.
OPINION: It’s time to take another look at our water
14 May 2008
The Green Party has capped any discussion of fresh water exports within the Labour-led coalition, and the National Party views the topic as a kind of Son of Nuclear issue, to be kept well clear of.
Select Committee interim report on emissions trading bill
14 May 2008
The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee has issued an 18-page interim report on the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Prefernece) bill.
Smelter submission actually supports ETS, makes special pleadings
13 May 2008
ANALYSIS. - The operator of New Zealand’s only aluminium smelter supports New Zealand’s desire to introduce an emissions trading scheme.
NZ hydrogen regulation to catch up with the world
18 Dec 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | The government has announced a regulatory reset for New Zealand’s emerging clean tech hydrogen sector.
State-owned farmer drives profit growth with emissions reductions
19 Dec 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Government-owned Landcorp, trading as Pāmu, is one-third of the way to meeting its 2031 emissions reduction targets, with five years left to run to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30.3% against 2021 emissions.
Transport dominates NZ’s rising consumer emissions
10 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Transport pollution was the biggest contributor to an increase in New Zealand’s consumption-based emissions in 2023, with emissions from household travel up 12%, and consumption-based emissions totalling 58.3 million tonnes – up 1.6% from the previous year.
NZ could become ‘dumping ground’ for dirty vehicles: Commissioner
16 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | Simon Upton, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, has warned the Government that its changes to the clean car standard could turn the country into a dumping ground for high emitting cars, making future emissions budgets harder to achieve.
Uncertainty eroding confidence in forestry sector
5 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Warnings are mounting that tree planting is set to plunge to “very close to zero”, as new Ministry for Primary Industries data shows ETS registration applications falling sharply as confidence in forestry declines.
Investors must support positive climate-tech
28 Nov 2025
OPINION: We need better leadership than the current ‘climate opportunism’ that is rife in the Beehive, and we need to back a marketplace that will make it happen, writes Rob Campbell.
