Best by the rest...
15 Jul 2022
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| Agricultural consultant Sarah Hawkins Photo: RNZ/Sally Round |
IN our weekly round-up of the best climate coverage in the local media: some of the country's biggest companies won't be covered by new climate disclosure laws; how protein from our paddocks could by-pass the cows-in-the-middle altogether; and is the government indulging in "magical thinking" with its biofuel plans?
Why The Warehouse will have to reveal its climate position but Farmers won't
By Eloise Gibson - STUFF
Big businesses will have to reveal their climate situations beginning in 2023. But many of our most popular companies aren’t covered. Eloise Gibson explains.
Gravy with your grassburger, madam?
Country Life - RNZ
It sounds radical but protein from farm pasture could be making its way directly from the paddock to your plate, without the need for an animal to chomp it up first.
New Zealand scientists have developed the technology to do this but can farmers be incentivised to lock up some of their fields for grass farming and reduce the number of cows on farm?
Regional council steps in over wetland clearance
The Waikato Regional Council is looking into the clearing of a designated Significant Natural Area (SNA) site in Matarangi linked to a new housing development.
But Forest & Bird said the desecration could have been avoided given the Thames-Coromandel District Council was told by the property developer’s contractor in August last year the work was going to happen.
Empowering whānau through māra kai and the maramataka
By Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes - The Spinoff
Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke (Waikato, Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Porou, Te Atiawa, Ngāi Tahu) from Waahi Pā in Rāhui Pōkeka is helping her people connect to the taiao through māra kai (food gardens) and mātauranga Māori tied to the maramataka.
On The Pacific Islands Forum gathering
By Gordon Campbell - Scoop
In recent months, China has been widely portrayed as a major strategic threat to the Pacific region, yet the Pacific states themselves beg to differ. Pacific leaders insist that climate change is a far more pressing existential threat.
Wishing for fairy dust – why the NZ Biofuels Obligation is the worst kind of magical thinking
By Jake Roos - Low Carbon Kapiti
Wouldn’t it be great if wishes came true, and all your problems just went away? If all you needed to do is ask for something and it materialised out of thin air before you? Of course it would, but the world doesn’t work like that. But it seems the NZ Government is in the thrall of such magical thinking when it comes to ‘sustainable’ biofuels.
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Govt ‘captured by industry’ on methane – Carr
Today 11:00am
By Liz Kivi | Former Climate Change Commission chair Rod Carr says that recent moves to weaken methane targets and halt plans for agricultural emissions pricing show the Government has been captured by industry.
Adaptation plan at odds with public sentiment: survey
Today 11:00am
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s position on climate adaptation buyouts shows a disconnect with public opinion, according to survey findings from insurer Suncorp NZ.
Council buys dairy farm to help clean up Lake Rotorua
Today 11:00am
Bay of Plenty Regional Council has bought a 266-hectare dairy farm in the Lake Rotorua catchment and plans to retire it from production to reduce nitrogen entering the lake.
Climate resilience funding boost for Whanganui Port’s South Mole works
Today 11:00am
By Moana Ellis, Local Democracy Reporter | Whanganui’s Te Pūwaha port revitalisation project has received $7.875 million from the government’s Climate Resilience Fund to support the next phase of restoration at the South Mole.
‘Pathetic': experts slam govt’s approach to adaptation
Mon 20 Oct 2025
By Liz Kivi | The government has signalled it will step back from full property buyouts if assets are hit by climate disasters, a move adaptation experts say will condemn hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders to a “dismal” future.
Methane pledge in question following NZ weakening targets
Mon 20 Oct 2025
By Liz Kivi New Zealand’s new methane target puts the Global Methane Pledge – and ultimately climate targets – at risk, according to an international expert.
Govt pours millions into Canterbury flood defences
Mon 20 Oct 2025
By Jonathan Leask, Local Democracy Reporter | Canterbury’s flood defences are set for a major boost, with $21.5 million in Government co-funding to fast-track nine priority river protection projects.
Electricity Authority proposes doubling solar export limits to 10 kW
Mon 20 Oct 2025
The Electricity Authority is proposing a default 10kW export limit for small-scale generation, saying new inverter standards and voltage settings allow homes and businesses to feed more power into local networks without compromising safety.
Difficult trade-offs ahead for climate adaptation
Fri 17 Oct 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | While climate impacts are already here, bringing the urgent need to accelerate effective adaptation now, the Government's newly minted adaptation framework still leaves important questions unanswered about who will pay.
All carrot, no stick for farmers on methane
Fri 17 Oct 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | COMMENT: The abandonment of methane emissions pricing and the adoption of a weaker target is effectively the last nail in the coffin of the historic cross-parliamentary consensus embedded in the Zero Carbon Act 2019.
