New Zealand: All stories
CLIMATE BUDGET: We're not ready, says Bennett
28 Jul 2017
New Zealand isn’t ready for a climate budget, says climate minister Paula Bennett.
We need expert climate advice, says commissioner
27 Jul 2017
New Zealand should adopt a UK-style Climate Change Commission and all political parties should support it, says the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
ETS CHANGES: Good news and bad news
27 Jul 2017
The latest changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme have met with mixed reactions.
Britain sets 2040 for ban on diesel and petrol cars
27 Jul 2017
Britain will ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health.
Google enters race for nuclear fusion technology
27 Jul 2017
Google and a leading US fusion company have developed a new computer algorithm that significantly speeds up progress toward clean, limitless energy.
Govt acts on auctioning and international units
26 Jul 2017
The $25 price cap is staying for now, but the importation of international units will be restricted when the New Zealand carbon market opens to the world again, the Government has just announced.
Wet weekend rewrites the record books
25 Jul 2017
Climate records continue to tumble this year, with Oamaru last weekend notching up its wettest day on record.
Bunker down, El Nino summers will get worse
25 Jul 2017
Climate change will mean more extreme El Niño summers – the weather pattern that causes droughts in the east of New Zealand and storms in the west.
It pays off to pay landowners to keep trees
25 Jul 2017
Paying landowners not to cut down trees is cheaper than the carbon-related costs the destruction of the forests would cause, new research shows.
Public doesn't need scientific climate consensus
25 Jul 2017
Climate change campaigns that focus on correcting public beliefs about scientific consensus are likely to backfire and undermine policy efforts, according to an expert commentary.
It's not easy building electric cars
25 Jul 2017
Despite Tesla’s success, the high risks of mass-producing an electric car from scratch haven’t changed all that much.
Environment officials quiet on new coal mines
24 Jul 2017
The Ministry for the Environment has given the Government no advice on the climate implications of developing 13 new coal mines.
THE COUNT: Floods fail to excite party leaders
24 Jul 2017
Climate change wasn’t on the lips of New Zealand’s political leaders last week, despite serious flooding in Canterbury and Otago and financial warnings from the world’s first professor of the economics of disasters.
Coastal home owners could pay huge price
21 Jul 2017
Threats from climate change-induced sea-level rise and storms are not reflected in the market value of coastal New Zealand property, putting many people at risk of financial disaster.
Busy ministry delays work on emissions planning
20 Jul 2017
Planning to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions in line with the country’s Paris Agreement commitments has been delayed because of the Ministry for the Environment’s heavy workload, confidential papers show.
Climate-related damage bill climbs to $174 million
19 Jul 2017
This year’s bill for climate-related disasters in New Zealand has climbed to $174.7 million.
European car makers plead with China to slow down
19 Jul 2017
Faced with China’s unwavering plan to accelerate the introduction of electric and hybrid cars, European manufacturers have joined forces with other global producers to plead with Beijing for a ‘less ambitious’ roadmap.
US utilities giving people cash for clean cars
19 Jul 2017
Carmakers, regulators, legislators and utilities are increasingly working together to boost sales of electric vehicles
Free footy tickets lure oil workers to renewables
19 Jul 2017
Redundant North Sea energy workers are being offered free football tickets to build revolutionary new electricity storage systems.
Officials work to cut shocking vehicle emissions
18 Jul 2017
Officials will put a plan to cut New Zealand’s appalling transport emissions to the Government before the end of the year.
Gases are changing the atmosphere ... and rapidly
18 Jul 2017
Humanity’s grand experiment in the atmosphere continues, and a new report documents just how far it has gone.
Livestock mega farms booming in Britain
18 Jul 2017
Nearly every county in England has at least one industrial-scale livestock farm, with close to 800 US-style mega farms operating across the UK, new research reveals.
Some biofuels worse than fossil fuels, warns report
18 Jul 2017
Biofuel use needs to increase to help to fight climate change as liquid fuels will be needed by aircraft and ships for many decades to come, finds a new report requested by the UK government.
Greens put case for billion-dollar growth fund
17 Jul 2017
A billion-dollar Green Infrastructure Fund and New Zealand at net-zero emissions by 2050 will be priorities for the Green Party in government.
Auckland could face a Japan-like climate
17 Jul 2017
Summer in Auckland could, by the end of the century, be as hot as summer in Yokohama is now, a new report says.
THE COUNT: James Shaw takes Greens into the lead
17 Jul 2017
It’s runs on the board this week for two leaders in The Count, our weekly tally of public statements about climate change by party leaders in the lead-up to the general election.
TOO HOT TO FLY: Increasing heat might ground planes
17 Jul 2017
As temperatures rise it may become too hot to fly, with aircraft likelier to be grounded, and more passengers more likely to lose their seats.
Next design step is bringing the weather indoors
17 Jul 2017
A building’s primary purpose may be to keep the weather out, but most do such an effective job of this that they also inadvertently deprive us of contact with two key requirements for our well-being and effectiveness: nature and change.
Wood-for-coal switch would save us millions
14 Jul 2017
Using wood instead of coal to provide industrial heat would cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions by 460,000 tonnes and save more than $11 million a year in carbon credits, a new report says.
ARKS OF THE APOCALYPSE: Science digs in to save our stuff
14 Jul 2017
All around the world, scientists are building repositories of everything from seeds to ice to mammal milk — racing to preserve a natural order that is fast disappearing.
Green groups slam Coke's recycled plastic scheme
14 Jul 2017
Coca-Cola's plan to reduce the millions of plastic bottles that end up in the world’s oceans every day has been criticised by environmental groups as unambitious PR spin.
Shoppers can pick their own kai at the supermarket farm
14 Jul 2017
A German startup intends to distribute smart vertical farming systems to supermarkets, providing customers with the option to hand-pick fresh vegetables and herbs.
Net-zero worthy target, says cross-party group
13 Jul 2017
The pan-political Globe climate group says cutting New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050 is worth serious discussion.
Global database gives more power to scientists
13 Jul 2017
Climate scientists will be able to more accurately study Earth’s temperature changes, thanks to a global database.
Earth's sixth mass extinction event under way
13 Jul 2017
A “biological annihilation” of wildlife in recent decades means a sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history is under way and is more severe than previously feared.
Ministers eye ways to beat mines planning rules
12 Jul 2017
The Government has been looking at approving new coal mines by creating special economic zones bypassing usual planning rules, Forest & Bird says.
How a different climate will change business and work
12 Jul 2017
The planet, already feeling the effects of climate change, is also poised to cause irreversible shifts in the ways we work, and the skills that employers need.
China and EU bolster greener global shipping
12 Jul 2017
The trillion-dollar global shipping industry might soon be forced to curb greenhouse gas emissions under new rules backed by the European Union and China.
Artificial environments turning the world outside in
12 Jul 2017
When meltwater breached the global seed bank near Svalbard in May, after unusually warm weather, it served as a stark reminder of the need to safeguard humanity’s future in the face of increasing turbulence.
E-cars selling, but not enough to make a difference
11 Jul 2017
New Zealanders are buying electric vehicles in “record” numbers, but they are not making a dent in the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Young Greens come to the zero-carbon party
11 Jul 2017
Young Green Party supporters are joining young National and Labour in supporting the Zero Carbon Act.
Handful of fossil fuel producers feed global emissions
11 Jul 2017
A mere 25 fossil fuel producers have accounted for just over half of global greenhouse emissions emissions in the past three decades, a new report says.
Who checks corporate claims of climate leadership?
11 Jul 2017
Big companies say they are leading the way to a cleaner future, but with only voluntary disclosures to keep them honest we just have to trust them.
Wildlife faces climate survival and breeding problems
11 Jul 2017
Climate change could cast a dark shadow over the bees of Europe, with global warming posing sex problems for the sea turtles of the Atlantic.
CLIMATE COST: Disaster damage bill tops $150 million
10 Jul 2017
Climate-related disasters have cost New Zealand more than $150 million this year.
EMA boots climate change off priority list
10 Jul 2017
Climate change policy is not a priority for the Employers and Manufacturers’ Association in this election.
THE COUNT: Greens leaders say something
10 Jul 2017
The public statements of world leaders might have been focused on climate change over the past week, but that doesn’t mean it has been on the agenda for New Zealand’s political leaders.
The world is on the brink of an electric-car revolution
10 Jul 2017
The internal combustion engine had a good run. It has helped propel cars — and thus humanity — forward for more than 100 years.
It's not just cars ... ports are going electric, too
10 Jul 2017
Led by the Port of San Diego, California’s dockyards are moving away from diesel machinery and plugging in.
Marine 'rats and cockroaches' thrive in our dying oceans
10 Jul 2017
Beneath the waves, swelling levels of carbon dioxide could be boosting some species to ecological dominance while dooming others.
Watts full-throated in National’s support for Paris
Today 12:45pm
By Pattrick Smellie | Climate Change Minister Simon Watts came to this week’s Climate Change and Business Conference with nothing to announce.
Milestone for NZ Steel electrification
Today 12:45pm
By Pattrick Smellie | NZ Steel has passed an installation milestone for its new electric arc furnace, which will reduce emissions from the Glenbrook steel mill site by as much as one megatonne (1Mt) a year.
International scientists slam NZ govt's proposed approach to methane
13 Aug 2025
New Zealand's proposed approach to methane emissions has again been attacked by international climate scientists, with a new study saying the attempt to redefine climate target-setting by livestock-exporting countries undermines the transition to a sustainable and equitable food system
Vector hits emissions reduction goal five years early
Fri 5 Sep 2025
By Liz Kivi | Auckland lines company Vector has met its 2030 emissions reduction reduction target five years early, more than halving its direct emissions, and crediting innovation and a laser-focus for its success in a hard-to-abate sector.
NZ needs to be part of a regional SAF strategy: Z, Air NZ
Tue 9 Sep 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | New Zealand needs to be part of a regional strategic approach to sourcing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), with domestic production less the aim than ensuring access to the fuel from one of a number of strategically positioned bio-refineries around the world.
Kawerau's new hope: Plan to replace coal with pine ramps up
Mon 8 Sep 2025
By Diane McCarthy, Local Democracy Reporter | Construction on a $300 million wood pellet plant in the Eastern Bay of Plenty is expected to start next month, with hopes it could cut the use of coal in New Zealand.
XRB consults on delaying climate reporting requirements
Thu 4 Sep 2025
The External Reporting Board is proposing a further two years relief for companies to adopt anticipated financial impacts reporting and scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions reporting and assurance.
