New Zealand: All stories
Price of NZUs edging higher
25 May 2022
The price of NZUs on the spot market has edged past the $77 mark this week for the first time since the middle of last month.
Government investment to boost coastal shipping
25 May 2022
The New Zealand Shipping Federation has welcomed a $30 million government boost to coastal shipping, which will lead to lower emissions per ton of freight compared to road and rail.
Redwood could help NZ reach net-zero: Scion
24 May 2022
Redwood could be a carbon capture hero for New Zealand, sequestering double the amount of CO2 captured by pine in some areas, according to new research.
Environment committee calls for submissions
24 May 2022
The Environment Committee Komiti Taiao is inviting public submissions on the government’s emissions budgets and Emissions Reduction Plan.
Kiwi founded company aiming to shake up global carbon markets
23 May 2022
By Liz Kivi | A Kiwi founded tech company, launched last month, is aiming to revolutionise the global carbon market with new technology that can accurately measure emissions in real-time and is much cheaper than current methods.
Shift to whole of energy system targets confirmed
23 May 2022
By Ian Llewellyn - editor Energy and Environment | The government’s shift to considering the energy system as a whole rather than focussing solely on getting electricity generation to 100% renewable by 2030 was confirmed by the Emissions Reduction Plan released last week.
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.
Budget disappoints public transport advocates
20 May 2022
By Jeremy Rose | Last weekend I caught the train out to Waikanae, cycled down to Paekakariki and then jumped back on a train to Wellington. All up it cost me just $10 – cheaper and a lot more pleasant than taking the car.
Waka Kotahi $15 million innovation fund aims to cut emissions
20 May 2022
Waka Kotahi has launched a $15 million innovation fund aimed at reducing emissions, encouraging mode shift, and making the provision of transport more equitable.
Best by the rest...
20 May 2022
In our Weekly round-up of the best climate coverage in the local media: academics respond to first Emissions Reduction Plan, blue carbon, wind and thermal touted as solutions to the climate crisis, and tax the rich to save the planet.
For wetland plants, sea-level rise stamps out benefits of higher carbon dioxide
20 May 2022
Wetlands across the globe are in danger of drowning from rising seas. But for decades, scientists held out hope that another aspect of climate change—rising carbon dioxide (CO2)—could trigger extra plant growth, enabling coastal wetlands to grow fast enough to outpace sea-level rise. That helpful side effect is disappearing, they discovered in a new study published May 18.
Renewables share of electricity topped 90% in December quarter
19 May 2022
The renewable share of electricity generation was 90.7% in the December quarter of last year - the highest quarter since December 1995.
Microplastics could worsen climate change
18 May 2022
By Liz Kivi | An environmental physicist says plastics could be influencing climate change, potentially compounding the effect of greenhouse gases.
New JOLT EV charging network for NZ
18 May 2022
Australian company JOLT is partnering with Mitre 10 to roll out a network of free, fast electric vehicle (EV) chargers around New Zealand.
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: Experts respond
17 May 2022
Some experts welcomed yesterday’s Emissions Reduction Plan as a positive step, however others see it as full of missed opportunities.
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.
Livestock methane emissions tackled by Western Australian company with 'inorganic bioactives'
17 May 2022
A Western Australian company claims to have produced bioactives in a laboratory that could reduce livestock methane emissions by up to 95%.
$2.9 billion allocated to reducing emission over the next four years
16 May 2022
Critics will dismiss it as little more than a speed bump on the highway to climate catastrophe while its supporters will welcome it as a multi-modal map to a net carbon zero New Zealand in 2050.
Solar farm promises continue to grow as does scepticism
16 May 2022
By Ian Llewellyn -Energy and Environment | YET more companies have expressed interest in building a vast array of solar farms. However, there is scepticism that many will come to fruition with one senior energy executive saying there is a lolly scramble for a limited amount of suitable land.
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.
Wellington’s flying fish soars above expectations
13 May 2022
Wellington’s first fast EV ferry is still making waves after two months in service, proving lighter, faster, and more energy efficient than its creators anticipated.
Best by the rest...
13 May 2022
In our Weekly round-up of the best climate coverage in the local media: Congestion charges coming to major cities; climate politics, both here and across the ditch; and how the climate crisis is disproportionately impacting Maori.
Even if we miss the 1.5°C target we must still fight to prevent every single increment of warming
13 May 2022
Is it game over for our attempts to avert dangerous climate change? For millions of people in India and Pakistan the answer is clearly yes as they continue to suffer from a record-breaking spring heatwave that is testing the limits of human survivability.
Trees aren’t a climate change cure-all – 2 new studies on the life and death of trees in a warming world show why
13 May 2022
The results of two studies published in the journals Science and Ecology Letters on May 12, 2022 – one focused on growth, the other on death – raise new questions about how much the world can rely on forests to store increasing amounts of carbon in a warming future. Ecologist William Anderegg, who was involved in both studies, explains why.
Overseas carbon liabilities to be included in Crown accounts in future
12 May 2022
Finance Minister Grant Robertson says Treasury is working on how to include the cost of meeting New Zealand’s Nationally Determined Contribution obligations in the Crown accounts, but it will take time.
Permanent pine settings in the ETS divisive among Maori
12 May 2022
A research group says Maori in their area are opposed to including pine in the Emissions Trading Scheme’s (ETS) permanent forestry settings, despite Te Paati Maori declaring strong support of pine.
It’s easier to break a bog than to repair it—but it’s still a carbon bargain.
12 May 2022
What do bogs in Indonesia and mangrove forests in Central America have in common? They are both powerful carbon sponges, capable of sucking up greenhouse gases at up to five times the rate of a forest. And they are both disappearing at alarming rates.
Canterbury farm switches on solar
11 May 2022
Oakley’s Premium Fresh Vegetables has installed a 220 kW solar system to power their Southbridge operation to store, wash, pack and dispatch fresh vegetables across the country.
'Fifty-fifty chance' of breaching 1.5C warming limit
11 May 2022
UK Met Office researchers say that there's now around a fifty-fifty chance that the world will warm by more than 1.5C over the next five years.
ACT proposes blitzkrieg of climate bureaucracy
10 May 2022
The ACT Party says it would scrap the Climate Change Commission and Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority and ditch all climate change related subsidies and environment-related job schemes, in its alternative budget launched yesterday.
Te Paati Maori comes out in support of permanent pine forests
10 May 2022
Debbie Ngawera-Packer, Te Paati Maori co-leader and climate change spokesperson, has come out in support of pine forests, attacking government proposals to remove exotic species from the permanent forestry category of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
Native forests cannot realistically compensate for flying
10 May 2022
By Paul Callister - Planetary Ecology blog | Submissions have now closed on a potential law change that would shift the emphasis from fast growing pine and other exotic forests to permanent native forests to absorb our emissions. These are complex debates involving forest ecology, economics, as well as ideology. The decision will have a major impact on long-term land use, especially with regard to marginal farmland. This, in turn, will affect farmer and Mâori landowner decisions on how to...
Atmospheric CO2 hits another all-time high
10 May 2022
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels measured at Hawai’i’s Mauna Loa Observatory breached 420 parts per million (ppm) in April for the first time in human history.
Cabinet sets emissions budget to 2035
9 May 2022
Cabinet has set New Zealand’s first three emissions budgets to take the country to 2035, in line with the plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050, Climate Change Minister James Shaw announced this morning.
Energy strategy needed for infrastructure plan
9 May 2022
By Ian Llewellyn - editor Energy and Environment | The first long-term infrastructure strategy points to the need for a modified energy strategy to back a massive build in new renewable electricity generation without pushing for it to be 100% renewable.
Mystery of the missing forestry credits solved
9 May 2022
On Friday Carbon News reported that British asset management fund Gresham House had purchased a 25% stake in 12,000 hectares of native New Zealand forests and was claiming it would generate 9 million carbon credits over 25 years. We questioned that 9 million figure as it’s well above the 1.95 million tonnes of CO2 a post-1989 native forest of that size would be expected sequester.
British firm takes 25% stake in 12,000 hectares of native bush
6 May 2022
British asset management fund Gresham House has taken a 25% stake in 12,000 hectares of native forest after having an Overseas Investment Office application to buy the lot declined last year.
Electric bus sales overtaking diesel
6 May 2022
Public transport is gradually making the switch to renewable energy, with electric bus imports overtaking diesel for the first time in the past 12 months.
Best by the rest...
6 May 2022
In our Weekly round-up of the best climate coverage in the local media: Sea levels are rising and Kiwi communities are sinking - who will pay for the damage? And Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick argues for collective responsibility on climate change.
Tropical vegetation benefits less from elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide than researchers previously thought
6 May 2022
Carbon dioxide is known to have a fertilizing effect on plant growth, and the gas is often added to greenhouse crops to help improve yields.
Gene-editing breakthrough could cut ruminant methane
6 May 2022
Scientists have successfully switched on a plant gene in feed crops that could help reduce methane emissions from cattle and sheep.
Climate impacts could lead to significant defaults: Reserve Bank
5 May 2022
The Reserve Bank is warning climate change could lead to significant defaults when combined with other factors, in their latest report.
10 YEARS AGO...
5 May 2022
Ten years ago, 148 of South Korea's 151 MPs voted for the introduction of an emissions trading scheme.
Is it time to put Te Pati Maori in charge of climate change?
4 May 2022
The Financial Times has created a climate change game that lets players see how they would do if they were put in charge of climate change policy: Te Pati Maori co-leader Debbie Ngawera-Packer had a go and she aced it.
Bay of Plenty council aiming for zero corporate emissions
4 May 2022
Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council has reduced its corporate greenhouse gas emissions by 15% since 2019, but still has a long way to go to reach its aim of being carbon neutral by 2050.
Council targets food waste to cut landfill emissions
3 May 2022
By Liz Kivi | Wellington is a step closer to reducing methane emissions from the Southern Landfill, with a trial in Miramar showing separate kerbside collection could reduce landfilled food waste by nearly 40%.
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.
Sea level rise the stuff of nightmares
2 May 2022
By Jeremy Rose | In the early 1990s I bought by first house – one of the original houses in Wellington’s Owhiro Bay. I still occasionally have a nightmare where the sea is washing through my lounge.
Protest shuts down Southland coal mine
2 May 2022
Thirty protesters stopped operations this morning at the Takitimu coal mine in Nightcaps, Southland, which is run by Bathurst Resources.
ETS a ‘broken paradigm’ undercutting biodiversity efforts
Mon 25 Aug 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Pure Advantage is calling on the government to reform the Emissions Trading Scheme, with a new policy briefing saying that New Zealand’s offset-heavy approach is a “broken paradigm” undermining biodiversity and shifting risk to communities.
Profound shifts in our changing energy system – new data
Wed 27 Aug 2025
New Zealand’s energy system is undergoing a profound shift as falling gas production and a dry hydro year reshaped the electricity market in 2024, according to data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Energy in New Zealand 2025.
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
Marginal drop in last year's regional emissions
Wed 27 Aug 2025
Regional greenhouse gas emissions were down slightly last year, with a fall in gas supply leading to a big drop in Taranaki, but more coal burnt leading to higher emissions in Waikato, according to new figures from Stats NZ
Fund for low emissions transport winds up
31 Jul 2025
New Zealand’s Low Emission Transport Fund has officially wrapped up, ending a nine-year programme that put hundreds of millions of dollars towards accelerating the country’s shift to cleaner transport.
Certainty crucial to emissions cuts – Watts
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.
Why climate strategy is now central to business success
Tue 26 Aug 2025
SPONSORED CONTENT: Ahead of next month’s Climate Change and Business Conference, New Zealand businesses are being urged to treat climate strategy not as a regulatory burden, but as a core driver of economic competitiveness.
