New Zealand: All stories
Collins appoints new climate spokesperson
12 Nov 2020
Kaikoura MP Stuart Smith is National’s new climate spokesperson, replacing Coromandel MP Scott Simpson.
WORTH NOTING ...
12 Nov 2020
Day two of the Climate Change and Business Conference is in Auckland today sees environment minister David Parker fronting up, as well as a discussion on what changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme mean for carbon prices.
'It's time,' Taylor says ahead of climate event
11 Nov 2020
Environmental Defence Society chief executive Gary Taylor is more optimistic about action on climate change than he has ever been.
Plant peas, Rabobank tells farmers
11 Nov 2020
New Zealand farmers wanting to take advantage of the growing demand for plant protein should be thinking peas.
Scientists’ oath pledges full climate crisis facts
11 Nov 2020
Scientists can now take a pledge committing them to tell the unvarnished facts: uncompromising public statements explaining how grave the reality is.
WORTH NOTING ...
11 Nov 2020
The Climate Change and Business Conference is on in Auckland and online today and tomorrow.
No miracle energy sources to replace fossil fuels, says scientist
10 Nov 2020
Radical decarbonisation in line with the Paris Agreement means getting used to living in a world without abundant supplies of energy, ecologist Dr Mike Joy is warning.
Where should be we use hydrogen?
10 Nov 2020
Is hydrogen the lifeblood of a low-carbon future, or an over-hyped distraction from real solutions?
WORTH NOTING ...
10 Nov 2020
It’s not too late to register for the Climate Change and Business Conference starting in Auckland tomorrow. The topic is redefining the future, and speakers include United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres, climate minister James Shaw and environment minister David Parker.
Tesla investor defends soaring share price
9 Nov 2020
One of the biggest investors in Tesla has defended the explosive growth in the US electric carmaker’s share price, arguing that it is “far from an aberration”.
Air travel’s date with sustainability draws nearer
9 Nov 2020
Aviation is gearing up for big changes in how the industry is regulated, as climate targets bite. The options available to decarbonise planes are plentiful and the challenge now is to invest enough resources in tech upgrades and regulatory tweaks to get the job done.
Scientists, doctors sound warning for farmers
6 Nov 2020
Emissions from food production alone could sink the world’s chances of meeting the Paris Agreement, scientists are warning in research with major implications for New Zealand.
How 'geothermal anywhere' can cut our emissions
6 Nov 2020
Large-scale geothermal energy has long been constrained to volcanic areas where heat can easily be captured and turned into electricity. Today, breakthroughs in drilling techniques are opening new horizons for the technology, offering the prospect of “geothermal anywhere”.
'Liquid window' harnesses light and heat
6 Nov 2020
Rising demand for cooling and heating in commercial buildings has pushed up their carbon emissions - could temperature-sensitive windows help?
Bentleys will be fully electric by 2030
6 Nov 2020
Bentley, the luxury carmaker, will stop making fossil-fuel cars by 2030 and aims to be completely carbon-neutral at the same time, in one of the most ambitious plans of any UK car manufacturer in the transition towards electric vehicles.
Emissions cuts from crossing milk and beef breeds
5 Nov 2020
Farmers could cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by two million tonnes a year by crossing beef and dairy cattle, scientists say.
Aotearoa Circle chooses new finance leaders
5 Nov 2020
Former Reserve Bank director Bridget Coates and Chapman Tripp partner Ross Pennington are the new co-chairs of The Aotearoa Circle's Sustainable Finance Forum.
Creative book-keeping helps carmarkers meet EU climate code
5 Nov 2020
Car manufacturers are shelling out millions of euros on so-called pooling agreements with rival firms in an attempt to avoid big EU fines for missing CO2 reduction targets. Fiat-Chrysler, Ford, Honda and others have so far brokered deals.
PLANET IN PERIL: Why we must change our financial system
4 Nov 2020
New Zealand can have a sustainable financial system by 2030, driving environmental, social and economic prosperity, a panel of public and private-sector heavyweights says.
Help for SMEs to cut emissions
4 Nov 2020
A new tool for measuring carbon emissions in small and medium-sized businesses will help decarbonise the country’s supply chain, says Toitû Envirocare.
Shell's climate tweet goes badly wrong
4 Nov 2020
A climate poll on Twitter posted by Shell has backfired spectacularly, with the oil company accused of gaslighting the public.
Why it's hard to cut aviation emissions
4 Nov 2020
A 1940s tax-exemption treaty designed to protect the fledgling aviation industry set airlines on a path to high emissions and low regulation.
Energy sector ripe for govt emissions targets
3 Nov 2020
The Government appears to have emissions from energy in its sights as it seeks to finally make real cuts in the country's emissions.
New method to measure fossil-fuel emissions
3 Nov 2020
Millions of stacks and tailpipes in cities around the world send up 70 per cent of the carbon dioxide ejected into the atmosphere by human beings.
You've got cheap data, how about cheap power too?
3 Nov 2020
The iPhone transformed mobile phones in just 10 years. Could green energy see a similar revolution?
Rewilded farmland can save money − and the Earth
3 Nov 2020
An international consortium of scientists has worked out − once again − how to conserve life on the planet and absorb dramatic quantities of the atmospheric carbon that is driving potentially calamitous climate change.
Govt looking again at reserve price for auctions
2 Nov 2020
Climate minister James Shaw is seeking new advice from officials on including a technical reserve price in the new carbon-auctioning regime.
New Govt unlikely to cut farmers more slack
2 Nov 2020
Speculation the Government may go soft on agricultural emissions without the Green Party in Cabinet ignores Labour’s track record on the issue.
Bank to ban companies using coal
30 Oct 2020
The ANZ Bank says it will not take on any new customers using coal, and that by 2030 it will finance gas and renewable power generation only.
FRIDAY POLITICS: We'll know by Sunday
30 Oct 2020
We should know on Sunday whether James Shaw will remain the country’s climate minister.
Aviation joins the electric age
30 Oct 2020
New Zealand’s first electric plane will take to the skies today.
Ford and GM knew about climate change - and covered it up
30 Oct 2020
Exxon knew, Shell knew, coal knew — is it any surprise that top auto manufacturers knew, too?
How to boost the hydrogen market
30 Oct 2020
Step by step, hydrogen has worked its way into the heart of the energy transition: as a storage medium for renewable energy; a fuel of the future for ships and planes; and a replacement for fossil fuels in homes, power and industry.
ORR: Pacific adaptability a lesson for the world
29 Oct 2020
Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr is invoking his own Pacific heritage in a new call for collective action on climate change.
Consortium plans carbon-capture projects
29 Oct 2020
After decades spent extracting fossil fuels from the UK’s North Sea, a consortium of oil companies is preparing to pump Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions back beneath the seabed to help meet the government’s climate ambitions.
New threat to prices from Govt auction
28 Oct 2020
The Government’s decision to auction large amounts of carbon credits without a technical reserve price in place poses a new downside risk to prices, warns the founder of one of New Zealand’s carbon-trading platforms.
Sleeping giant' Arctic methane deposits starting to release
28 Oct 2020
Scientists have found evidence that frozen methane deposits in the Arctic Ocean – known as the “sleeping giants of the carbon cycle” – have started to be released over a large area of the continental slope off the East Siberian coast, the Guardian reveals.
2020 on course to be warmest year on record
28 Oct 2020
While this year will be memorable for many reasons, it is now more likely than not that 2020 will also be the warmest year for the Earth’s surface since reliable records began in the mid-1800s.
Dust threatens Western US and Southeast Asia
28 Oct 2020
Half a planet apart, one low-lying and the other on the roof of the world, two huge regions confront an increasing dust risk − a menace to jobs, to food and to lives.
Get reserve in place to protect taxpayers, says Simpson
27 Oct 2020
The Government can and should pass legislation allowing it to set reserve prices when it auctions carbon credits, National says.
Shaw 'odds-on' as minister, says Simpson
27 Oct 2020
National’s climate spokesperson is picking Green Party co-leader James Shaw will stay on as climate minister.
FRIDAY POLITICS: A potentially costly hole in the Government's carbon-auctioning plan
23 Oct 2020
Green Party co-leader James Shaw is still in the running to retain his role as the country’s climate minister – but that might mean clearing up a bit of a mess of his own making.
World Bank branch backs coal megaproject
23 Oct 2020
The World Bank’s private lending branch is indirectly backing one of the world’s biggest new coal complexes, despite a new green policy.
Electric cars 'as cheap to manufacture' as regular models by 2024
23 Oct 2020
Electric cars will cost the same to make as conventional cars, with internal combustion engines, by 2024, according to new research.
Forestry’s climate impact ‘invisible’ under UN rules, experts say
23 Oct 2020
Forests are the planet’s biggest carbon “sink” – absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they emit – but their contribution to cooling the earth’s climate is currently not fully accounted for under UN rules, experts say.
Business makes bid for $7.23 billion
22 Oct 2020
Businesses want the new Government to back $7.23 billion worth of projects they say will cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 5.5 per cent over the next decade.
Geology’s human footprint is enough to spur rage
22 Oct 2020
Once again science has presented evidence that a new geological epoch is here. This human footprint is all our own work.
Businesses talking sustainable procurement
21 Oct 2020
Some of the country’s biggest organisations are working together to figure out how to drive sustainable purchasing by businesses.
Rising heat means more heat and more methane
21 Oct 2020
Nights are warmer. So are northern lakes. And farm livestock are at greater risk of disease, thanks to rising heat.
We need to solve the dry-year problem, says Carr
20 Oct 2020
Electrification of more of the economy to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions will require a resolution to the risk posed by dry years to the hydro-electricity system, says Climate Change Commission chair Dr Rod Carr.
Pacific climate response in question as NZ finance remains unclear
19 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | With New Zealand's $1.3 billion international climate finance commitment set to end with no clarity on what follows, the Auditor-General says oversight of that funding remains patchy and long-term outcomes are unclear.
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.
