New Zealand: All stories
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.
Get soil recognised as carbon storer, say scientists
21 May 2008
Scientists working on quantifying the carbon-storage potential of New Zealand soils are urging officials to start work now on getting soil recognised in the next round of climate-change protocols.
Major move to shift 30% of inter-regional freight to sea
21 May 2008
The Government has announced a $36 million investment to revitalise coastal shipping, to slash land transport fuel use and emissions.
Pacifica: Funding boost will stimulate coastal links
21 May 2008
The Government's $36 million coastal shipping development programme couldsee new ships used and former coastal shipping routes re-opened.
Deforestation Risk Overstated
21 May 2008
Fears that a temporary delay in the passage of the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill could lead to significant deforestation are unfounded, according to the Flexible Land Use Alliance.
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.
Coastal shipping revamp to play major role in emissions cuts
20 May 2008
The Government today will announce plans to more effectively link rail and coastal shipping and to make it easier for port companies to access government funding for infrastructure development.
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.
Fed Farmers pushes to have soil carbon sequestration included in ETS
20 May 2008
Federated Farmers is calling for a greater push toward getting soil recognised as a legitimate method of storing greenhouse gases, saying that it would be a boon to farmers struggling to deal with emission from animals.
One, two, tree … big emitter counts on the children
20 May 2008
One of our biggest carbon emitters is launching a campaign to get New Zealanders to reduce energy use – and is using children to do it.
Electricity market: Prices continue to rise
20 May 2008
Electricity prices continued to rise last week.
Who pays for climate change?
20 May 2008
OPINION: New Zealand Centre for Political Research.- Last week the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment came out in support of the Government's Emissions Trading Bill as the gateway to a 'carbon-constrained future':
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.
Worried farmers: We want to be part of the ETS
19 May 2008
Farmers want to do their bit and be part of the emissions trading scheme, says Federated Farmers president Charlie Pedersen.
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.
Canadian with Kiwi connections to take over Genesis
19 May 2008
Canadian New Zealander Albert Brantley is to be the new boss of Genesis Energy, operator of the Huntly power station and New Zealand’s largest electricity retailer.
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.
NZ energy-miser motor could lead the world
16 May 2008
A revolutionary New Zealand-designed electric motor with the potential to save huge amounts of energy and carbon has won $1.75 million of government research funding.
Gas from our coal could provide energy for 1600 years
16 May 2008
A report by New Zealand’s former technical supremo on coal, Peter Toynbee, indicates that New Zealand is in a powerful position in regard to coal-generated energy.
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.
Booming biofuels company shows how it can be done
15 May 2008
Gull has stolen a march on the big fuel companies and proved that the Government’s initial biofuel target can be met.
Airships' potential not just hot air, says entrepreneur
15 May 2008
Fancy cutting transport costs by half and saving the environment at the same time? Airships might be just the ticket.
How Aunt Betty’s defeated food miles and won Tesco
15 May 2008
Old Fashioned Foods Group, whose signature brand is Aunt Bettys, lifted up their skirts and laid about them with a rolling pin when, in a remarkable display of agility, the group started acquiring space on the Tesco shelves. It did so by very largely obscuring its New Zealand origins.
OPINION: Wind Farms: Powering Future or Destroying Past?
15 May 2008
By the Save Central Group.- The region of Otago is in a state of significant upheaval over the giant turbines of Meridian’s Project Hayes and TrustPower’s Mahinerangi Wind Farm.
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.
Government campaign urges industry to burn wood
14 May 2008
The Government is mounting a strong campaign urging industry to use wood instead of coal or oil.
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.
Rio Tinto joins 'capital strike' game, says union leader
13 May 2008
Rio Tinto’s threat to close the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is the latest move in a “capital strike” campaign by heavy greenhouse-gas emitters to get their own way over the emissions trading scheme, says EPMU national secretary Andrew Little.
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.
Forest owners tell ETS body: Our burden is unfair
13 May 2008
The forestry industry’s displeasure at being the only sector left in the early stages of the emissions trading scheme reached Parliament yesterday.
Little point in NZ carbon trading currency, says business group
13 May 2008
A second major business group is suggesting that New Zealand should be using international carbon instruments instead of creating its own currency.
Shock shipping news puts New Zealand on the spot
13 May 2008
A United Nations study that claims the true scale of CO2 emissions from shipping is three times higher than previously thought, is bad news for New Zealand.
The Business Roundtable writes
13 May 2008
References to the Business Roundtable in your editorial of April 29, 2008 were drawn to my attention.
Dairy operator eyes $75m loss without forestry offset scheme
12 May 2008
The emissions trading scheme could cost the owners of one of New Zealand’s biggest dairy conversions $75 million and see prime pastoral farmland remain locked-up in plantation forest unless a forestry offset scheme is introduced.
Nats deny any ETS deal with Government
12 May 2008
National is denying reports that it is gearing up to do a deal with Labour over the emission trading scheme, and the Government isn’t commenting.
Most Kiwis believe big emitters running the climate change show
12 May 2008
Most New Zealanders think that big greenhouse-gas emitters are calling the shots on the country’s climate change policy, and a Labour-Green coalition is seen as the best combination to manage change, according to a new poll.
Can National really make the tough calls on climate change?
12 May 2008
ANALYSIS – National may be showing it really doesn’t want to act on climate change.
Celebrity chef could cook up a storm for our food exporters
12 May 2008
Suggestions by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay that British restaurants should be fined for having imported food on their menus are a sign of the misguided Northern Hemisphere perception of the environmental impact of the international food trade, and are potentially damaging to New Zealand, says Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Peter Silcock.
New poll: Kiwis like ETS delays but want heavy emitters to pay now
9 May 2008
New Zealanders approve of the Government’s billion-dollar decision to delay bringing transport into the emissions trading scheme – but think that heavy emitters should be facing the cost of their emissions now.
Transport delay seen as threat to carbon currency
9 May 2008
The viability of the proposed New Zealand carbon currency, NZU, is threatened by the Government’s decision to delay bringing transport into the emissions trading scheme for another two years, says the Sustainability Council.
Debanking debate heats up as deadline looms for submissions on NZ First bill
Today 10:30am
By Shannon Morris-Williams | The debate over so-called “woke banking” is back in the spotlight as the deadline approaches for public input on NZ First’s Debanking Bill.
SolarZero liquidation complex - but sale possible
Today 10:30am
It will likely take a long time to sort out the complexities around the liquidation of SolarZero, with a series of claims against the company adding to the myriad complexities in arrangements set up to manage its contracts and obligations.
Flurry of govt announcements at Fieldays
12 Jun 2025
The government has come up with a solar energy package for farms, a new grass-fed certification scheme for meat and dairy, and a supplier agreement for carpets in new state homes - all part of the annual flurry of politicians’ Fieldays announcements.
Mangroves' overlooked climate role
Mon 30 Jun 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand’s mangrove forests are pulling tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year, yet their climate benefits remain unrecognised in national emissions reporting.
How flying can be a climate solution
16 Jun 2025
By Paul Callister and Robert McLachlan - Planetary Ecology | How can aviation contribute to tackling climate change when no practicable technology-based solutions are on the horizon?
Bill to limit farm-to-forest conversions passes first reading
Fri 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.
IRD will stop using wetland destruction in ‘how-to’ for claiming expenses
Fri 27 Jun 2025
By Liz Kivi | Environmental organisation Forest & Bird has welcomed the Inland Revenue’s decision to stop using wetland destruction as an example of a tax-deductible agricultural expense in future guidance.
