Media round-up
31 Jan 2025
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| Photo by Stijn te Strake on Unsplash |
In our weekly round-up of climate coverage in local media: Fonterra is caught up in misinformation around use of feed additive Bovaer and two Wellington communities want to become the first carbon-neutral suburbs in the world.
Debanking bill 'financially dangerous'
Tue 15 Jul 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | A private member’s bill aiming to stop financial institutions from considering ESG factors has been slammed by leading investment groups, legal experts, and climate finance advocates as misguided, financially dangerous, and legislative overreach.
4000 hectares of forest uprooted by extreme winds in Nelson-Tasman storms
Tue 15 Jul 2025
By Liz Kivi | Foresters are facing a massive clean-up and tens of millions of dollars worth of damage from recent climate change-fuelled storms at the top of the South Island, with initial reports of 4000 hectares of wind-thrown production forestry.
As the sea level rises, who will pay? Councils seek answers
Tue 15 Jul 2025
By David Hill, Local Democracy Reporter | North Canterbury's councils are seeking guidance from Government over who pays for protections from sea level rise, flooding and weather events.
Govt urged to make moves on electricity market
Tue 15 Jul 2025
Lobbying is increasing ahead of the release of the Frontier Economics report and the Government’s decisions on electricity market reforms.
‘Weaponised timber torpedoes’ – call for forestry changes after flooding
Mon 14 Jul 2025
By Liz Kivi | A climate scientist is calling for changes to forestry practices, after the second ‘one-in-one-hundred-year’ climate-fuelled flash flood to hit the top of the South Island in two weeks unleashed a torrent of pine forest waste, wiping out homes and a campground.
Researchers unveil new tools to accurately track methane emissions
Mon 14 Jul 2025
Breakthrough methane monitoring tools developed by Earth Sciences New Zealand are set to transform how farmers, landfill operators, and wastewater facilities track and tackle their methane emissions.
'Back-to-basics' approach for councils ignores climate risk
Fri 11 Jul 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | While ACT is standing local government candidates to oppose councils' attempts to manage emissions and ministers are calling for local authorities to 'get back to basics' - or even suggesting scrapping regional councils altogether - one expert says this narrative is putting communities at risk in the face of climate change.
Emissions Trading Scheme needs deep reform - commissioner
Fri 11 Jul 2025
The government’s attempt to limit forestry conversions on rural land is unlikely to lead to meaningful change, according to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
‘Significant gaps’ in proposed approach to climate adaptation
Thu 10 Jul 2025
A new report into climate adaptation doesn’t suggest how development in high-risk areas should be avoided - an issue that needs urgent action with thousands of homes still being built in hazardous areas, according to the Environmental Defence Society.
Fast, sustained phase-out of fossil fuels: best-performing countries in coal and transport sectors
Thu 10 Jul 2025
By Robert McLachlan | It’s true that climate change is getting worse – it will continue to get worse until emissions fall to near zero. But is action on phasing out fossil fuels really stalling?
