Topics tagged with 'Carbon News world'
Scientists discovered something alarming seeping out from beneath the ocean around Antarctica
13 Oct 2025
Planet-heating methane is escaping from cracks in the Antarctic seabed as the region warms, with new seeps being discovered at an “astonishing rate".
Researchers compare the footprint of meat vs. plant-based dog foods. The differences were staggering.
13 Oct 2025
Global pet food emissions rival those of a small country. A new UK study reveals that switching dogs to plant-based foods could slash emissions tenfold—without sacrificing nutrition.
Nestle leaves climate alliance for dairy emission reductions
10 Oct 2025
The Swiss consumer goods company previously said its overall greenhouse gas emissions declined 20% in 2024.
Overshoot: Exploring the implications of meeting 1.5C climate goal ‘from above’
10 Oct 2025
The first-ever international conference on the contentious topic of “overshoot” was held last week in a palace in the small town of Laxenburg in Austria.
Pakistan's catastrophic floods show why we need just and effective climate finance
10 Oct 2025
Images of catastrophe flicker across our screens with alarming regularity: parched lands cracking under relentless heatwaves in the Sahel, coastal communities swallowed by rising tides in the Pacific and, now, devastating torrential floods in Pakistan.
National security threatened by climate crisis, UK intelligence chiefs due to warn
10 Oct 2025
The UK’s national security is under severe threat from the climate crisis and the looming collapse of vital natural ecosystems, with food shortages and economic disaster potentially just years away, a powerful report by the UK’s intelligence chiefs is due to warn.
Solar panel efficiency record broken in big boost for renewable energy
10 Oct 2025
Scientists in Sydney have smashed the efficiency record for a new type of solar panel.
Cancelled artwork in Belém generates 57,765 Cultural Degrowth Credits
10 Oct 2025
The figures represented the anonymous decision-makers behind the greenhouse gas emissions driving the climate crisis.
Bonaire residents take Netherlands to court over climate
9 Oct 2025
The trial is a first for Europe and follows an advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice, which provides a legal interpretation of international climate law.
Media and political attacks on Australia’s emissions targets ‘straight out of the climate obstruction playbook’
9 Oct 2025
Recent political and media attacks on renewable energy and climate action in Australia have come “out of the climate obstruction playbook” that has been honed over decades around the world by fossil fuel interests, according to professor Christian Downie.
China accelerates oil reserve site build amid stockpiling drive
9 Oct 2025
China is building oil reserve sites at a rapid clip as part of a campaign to boost crude stockpiles that increased in urgency after Russia's Ukraine invasion upended global energy flows and has accelerated this year.
US Energy Department to slash nearly $24 billion in green project funding
9 Oct 2025
The US Energy Department is slashing nearly $24 billion of funding for climate projects, as the Trump administration moves to further unwind Biden-era climate policies during the government shutdown.
India to become second-largest renewable market as global growth doubles: IEA
9 Oct 2025
India is set to become the second-largest growth market as global renewables will expand 2.5 times by 2030; however, grid and financing gaps threaten momentum, according to a new report.
Plan to reflect sunlight to power solar panels at night upsets astronomers
9 Oct 2025
California startup Reflect Orbital plans to launch thousands of satellites with mirrors to redirect sunlight to solar farms at night.
Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says
8 Oct 2025
Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions.
Solar and wind power overtake coal as world’s biggest generator of electricity, report finds
8 Oct 2025
The authors say it's a sign that renewables can keep up the pace with the growing appetite for electricity worldwide.
UK Conservatives promise to ditch carbon pricing
8 Oct 2025
The UK’s opposition Conservative party (currently third in the polls) has pledged to cut energy prices by scrapping carbon pricing and wind subsidies.
Groups sue E.P.A. over cancelled $7 billion for solar energy
8 Oct 2025
The lawsuit accused the Environmental Protection Agency of illegally revoking the money without congressional approval.
Eliminating contrails from flying could be incredibly cheap
8 Oct 2025
Eliminating CO2 emissions from flying is going to be expensive, regardless of the solution the world adopts.
Most of the world has recently set all-time heat records
8 Oct 2025
We focus a lot on global average temperatures, but this tends to mask the real local impacts that climate change is having. The land – where all of us live – is warming about 40% faster than the global average, and high latitude regions are warming even faster.
UN-backed climate banking alliance ceases operations
7 Oct 2025
The Net-Zero Banking Alliance, a UN-backed initiative seeking carbon neutral investments by banks, announced Friday its immediate shutdown -- at a time of faltering climate commitments in the United States and Europe.
What the ‘controversial’ GWP* methane metric means for farming emissions
7 Oct 2025
A controversial way of measuring how much methane warms the planet has stirred debate in recent years – particularly around assessing the climate impact of livestock farming.
African countries gear up for major push on climate innovation, climate financing and climate change laws
7 Oct 2025
A major topic of discussion at the summit was how to increase the money available to fund Africa’s adaptation to the new, rapidly heating climate.
Online attacks threaten major climate-friendly diet report
7 Oct 2025
A major scientific update to one of the most influential food and planetary health reports of the past decade is in the crosshairs of a pro-meat misinformation campaign.
How food waste became the climate crisis no one wants to stop
7 Oct 2025
Food waste is not a side issue. It is the billion-meal scandal at the heart of climate breakdown and social injustice.
‘This is real progress’: Airlines on sustainable aviation fuels and the chances of net zero flying
7 Oct 2025
The EU and UK have imposed mandates, and investors see its value – but the industry has mixed views.
In a new era of climate disaster, a tiny, resilient mountain village in New Mexico is teaching the world how to adapt
7 Oct 2025
Rather than risk the destruction of their village with every flood, Ruidoso’s leaders are plotting for survival.
EAT-Lancet report: Three key takeaways on climate and diet change
6 Oct 2025
A global shift towards “healthier” diets could cut non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions, such as methane, from agriculture by 15% by 2050, according to a new report.
UK Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised over plan to scrap climate change act
6 Oct 2025
Campaigners said it will put the Tories on the side of "conspiracy theorists and far right extremists".
China's 'Great Green Wall' brings hope but also hardship
6 Oct 2025
China’s campaign to contain the expansion of deserts due to intensive farming, grazing, mining and climate change has increased available pastures, but also “erodes traditional farming practices and culture.”
15.2 million fake carbon credits were sold from the Kariba REDD project according to Verra
6 Oct 2025
Almost two years after suspending the project, Verra has completed its carbon accounting review. The quality control review is still ongoing.
End of EV tax subsidy sparks worries of collapse in US electric car sales
6 Oct 2025
Automotive executives are bracing for a freefall in U.S. electric-vehicle sales following the disappearance of a critical $7,500 tax break for buyers.
‘A remarkable ability to inspire’: global tributes pour in for Jane Goodall
6 Oct 2025
World leaders, friends and former colleagues have been paying tribute to the primatologist Jane Goodall, who died in California on Wednesday, aged 91.
Pope Leo condemns climate change critics
3 Oct 2025
Pope Leo XIV has hit out at those who minimise the "increasingly evident" impact of rising temperatures in his first major statement on climate change.
When China makes a climate pledge, the world should listen
3 Oct 2025
A few years ago, one of us (Myles Allen) asked a Chinese delegate at a climate conference why Beijing had gone for “carbon neutrality” for its 2060 target rather than “climate neutrality” or “net zero”, both of which were more fashionable terms at the time.
UK to speed up fracking ban
3 Oct 2025
The government is to speed up its plans to permanently ban fracking in the UK, in order to counter the Reform party’s promises to bring back the controversial practice.
Antarctic sea ice winter peak in 2025 is third smallest on record
3 Oct 2025
Provisional data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) shows that Antarctic sea ice reached a winter maximum of 17.81m square kilometres (km2) on 17 September.
Countering the Trump administration’s attack on climate science
3 Oct 2025
The Trump Administration is attempting to remove the legal basis for U.S. action on greenhouse gas emissions by attacking the climate science that underpins it.
New Singapore-led initiative to boost protection, restoration of marine habitats for carbon credits
3 Oct 2025
A Singapore-led initiative that aims to boost the protection and restoration of marine and coastal habitats in South-east Asia to generate carbon credits was launched in New York on Sept 24.
With federal support for wind and solar waning, states are trying to push policy through on their own
2 Oct 2025
A new report from the think tank Clean Tomorrow tracks how states are expanding – or restricting – where renewable energy projects can be built.
Travellers bothered by their flight’s pollution can pay to reduce it elsewhere. Do offsets work?
2 Oct 2025
So you’re booking your flight, and just when you’re about to check out, the airline asks if you’d like to pay a little something to offset your share of the flight’s pollution. Or, maybe you’re an environmentally minded person, and you’ve heard you can buy these things called carbon offsets.
NGOs urge no green label for fossil fuel investments
2 Oct 2025
Fossil fuel developers should be excluded from financial investments labelled sustainable, NGOs and associations urged on Tuesday, as part of any reform of the European Union's green finance transparency rules.
Can the courtroom save the climate?
2 Oct 2025
It was in early 2017 when it seemed like nearly every person I knew from home was asking me the same question: Should they be worried about what was about to happen in Washington, D.C.?
Renewables are a global economic engine, not a culture war threat
2 Oct 2025
Energy companies are learning this lesson faster than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
Want to know the grotesque truth about the oil industry? Then look at their tacky paperweights
2 Oct 2025
Tanoa Sasraku has been collecting – and creating her own – gaudy paperweights with a drop of crude oil encased within.
The current war on science, and who’s behind it
1 Oct 2025
Summers across the global north are now defined by flash floods, droughts, heat waves, uncontainable wildfires, and intensifying named storms, exactly as predicted by Exxon scientists back in the 1970s.
Transport will make or break Australia’s new climate plan – and time is running out to fix it
1 Oct 2025
Australia has a new climate target: cutting emissions by 62-70% below 2005 levels by 2035. Meeting even the lower end means halving emissions in a decade.
Banks still finance fossil fuels far more than sustainable energy, report finds
1 Oct 2025
The world’s major banks are still financing fossil fuels twice as much as their sustainable alternatives, according to eight NGOs.
China calls EU hypocritical over criticism of climate goal
1 Oct 2025
The EU climate chief's criticism of China's new climate pledges shows "double standards and selective blindness," China's foreign ministry said on Friday, accusing the bloc of being slow to act on its own climate targets.
Half of global emissions covered by 2035 climate pledges after UN summit in New York
1 Oct 2025
Half of global greenhouse gas emissions are now covered by a 2035 climate pledge following a key UN summit this week, Carbon Brief analysis finds.
Fifty years of observations, no reversal of glacier climate damage
31 Mar 2026
Media release: Earth Sciences New Zealand | Fifty years on from the first aerial survey of our Southern Alps glaciers, late snow and variable summer weather delivered a temporary reprieve from rapid ice loss, says Earth Sciences New Zealand.
Fonterra admits ‘100% grass-fed’ claim breached law in greenwashing row
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Fonterra has admitted its “100% New Zealand grass-fed” claims on Anchor butter were misleading and breached the law, settling a case brought by Greenpeace Aotearoa over packaging used between December 2023 and April 2025.
$30m airline fund risks ‘burning public money’ without lasting benefit – expert
20 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | A $30 million government package to support regional air routes risks delivering poor value for money while increasing emissions, according to transport strategist Tim Adriaansen.
Signs of jet fuel hoarding emerge in Asia on Iran oil shock
26 Mar 2026
Signs are growing that Asian countries are hoarding jet fuel after the Iran war sent oil prices surging, reflecting growing strain on the aviation industry.
New protections for NZ migratory species under UN convention
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New international protections for migratory species, including several found in New Zealand, are a positive step – but global protections won’t halt the decline of migratory species on their own, experts say.
Air NZ joins Marsden Point SAF project
3 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Air New Zealand has quietly added its name to a consortium exploring the viability of green hydrogen production for sustainable aviation fuel at Channel Infrastructure’s Marsden Point energy hub.
Economic contraction will impact carbon market
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Liz Kivi | While higher fossil fuel prices strengthen the long-run economics of decarbonisation, the current fuel crisis won’t inspire near-term confidence in the carbon market, according to Lizzie Chambers of Carbon Match.
Carbon price: Ups and downs amid geopolitical uncertainty
26 Mar 2026
By Liz Kivi | After ups and downs in recent weeks, the carbon market again broke above the $40 mark this week, with questions around how the Middle East conflict will play out weighing on market confidence.
Asia ramps up use of dirty fuels to cover energy shortfall triggered by Iran war
Thu 2 Apr 2026
South Korea will delay the shutdown of coal-fired plants, while the Philippines also plans to boost the output of its coal-burning plants
Death toll in Afghanistan flooding increases to 28, authorities say
Wed 1 Apr 2026
Afghan authorities said Monday that the death toll from severe weather that has struck swathes of the country over the past four days has increased to 28, with 49 people injured. Dozens of people have died from extreme weather in the country so far this year.
Sustainable retail-office project breaks ground under new Green Star framework
19 Feb 2026
Construction is set to begin on a new retail-office development in central Auckland, which is targeting a 40% reduction in embodied carbon and 25% lower energy.
Opposition attacks Govt over fossil fuel phaseout backdown
2 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | Revelations that Resources Minister Shane Jones ruled out New Zealand signing up to a 'road map' away from fossil fuels at last year’s global climate summit show the National Party’s minor coalition partners’ undue influence over the Government, according to Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
Carbon trading schemes cut more emissions than carbon taxes, according to global study
20 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Carbon trading schemes are more effective than carbon taxes at reducing emissions, cutting fossil fuel use, and accelerating the shift to renewable energy, a global study has found.
Watts’s last stand: Simeon Brown takes energy portfolio
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Energy Minister Simon Watts has lost the portfolio to Cabinet fixer Simeon Brown in a reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this morning.
Environmental groups call for ETS reform
20 Feb 2026
Several environmental organisations are calling on political parties to make climate and biodiversity central to the 2026 election campaign, with reforming the Emissions Trading Scheme seen as a key priority.
Dairy farmers' lack of climate action 'even bleaker' than water inaction – Upton
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Government projections for cutting agricultural emissions are being undermined by low farmer uptake, with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment warning the country is relying on “heroic” assumptions to meet its methane targets.
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.
Wellington planting nears one million trees
30 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Greater Wellington’s parks restoration programme will hit one million native trees this year, with the first dams to rewet peat wetlands in Queen Elizabeth Park now completed after a years-long effort to bring these ecosystems – and their carbon sequestering superpowers – back to life.
Labour mulls GIDI 2.0 as factory closures mount
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Factory closures across the country could have been prevented if the last Labour-led government’s GIDI fund to assist companies with the cost of electrification hadn't been scrapped, Labour energy spokesperson, Megan Woods, says.
RMA to speed up fossil fuel consents
18 Aug 2025
By Liz Kivi | An energy lobby group has welcomed a last-minute amendment to the RMA that puts fossil fuels on the same footing as renewables, however a sustainable energy expert says the move “beggars belief.”
FMA to ease conditions for green bond issues
31 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Green, social and sustainability-linked bonds will face lower disclosure requirements and regulatory costs under a class exemption newly granted by the Financial Markets Authority.
Five trees can’t offset a car: Lawyers accuse Mazda of greenwashing
9 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Lawyers for Climate Action NZ is taking Mazda to the Advertising Standards Authority over its claims that a tree-planting programme will offset vehicle emissions.
Govt missing opportunity to slash electricity prices, says expert
11 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s fixation on eliminating the "dry-year risk margin" as a lever to reduce costs misses a much bigger opportunity to lower electricity prices, according to Christina Hood, head of Compass Climate.
NZ prepares to join ‘gold rush’ for white hydrogen
25 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | New Zealand may be close to commercialising the capture and use of naturally occurring ‘white’ hydrogen, with investment plans for developments in the Wairarapa region picking up pace in response to spiralling oil prices.
Media round-up
20 Mar 2026
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: Crown lawyers agree High Court could quash emissions plan if found unlawful; NZ is locked in 'disaster inertia'; and climate change is notably absent from new development laws.
Climate law change spanner in the works for Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry
19 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s controversial changes to New Zealand’s legal framework for climate policy have thrown a spanner in the works for a long-running Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry into climate change.
Lawyers complain to ombudsman over Govt failure to release LNG modelling
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Liz Kivi | Lawyers for Climate Action has made a formal complaint to the Ombudsman over the Government’s failure to release information about its controversial decision to build a LNG import terminal.
Cleantech expo coming to Auckland
26 Mar 2026
New Zealand’s first national cleantech expo is set to bring together 30 innovators, in what organisers say is the country’s fastest growing area in the tech sector.
NZ First targets regional share of mining royalties
30 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand First has proposed returning 50% of mining royalties to regional communities, saying that too much of the value from resource extraction is currently flowing to Wellington.
Tuvalu prioritises climate change in agreement with NZ
27 Mar 2026
By Liz Kivi | New Zealand has pledged an additional $20 million to climate resilience work in Tuvalu, more than doubling Aotearoa's aid to the tiny island nation in the current financial year.
NZ's latest climate target 'weak' – Climate Action Tracker
24 Jun 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand's new international climate target to 2035 is weak, and could even allow for higher emissions than the 2030 target, according to a global scientific project that tracks government climate action.
Worst in a generation: Environmentalists slam fisheries reform bill
25 Mar 2026
Media release: Greenpeace | The Fisheries Amendment Bill, which will likely have its first reading in parliament this week, is being labelled the worst fisheries policy in a generation by environmental groups who are calling for it to be rejected to protect ocean health.
Govt process to change climate plan ‘fundamentally flawed’, says judge
18 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | The government’s 2024 changes to New Zealand’s first Emissions Reduction Plan was “as fundamentally flawed a process as I think I have ever seen”, the judge presiding in a case challenging climate change decision-making has said.
Kiwis overly optimistic about state of environment
27 Feb 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New research suggests many New Zealanders believe the environment is in better shape than it really is, with public perceptions often out of step with scientific evidence.
‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics
24 Feb 2026
Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?
Media round-up
Thu 2 Apr 2026
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: The widening political gap is deepening cracks in NZ's climate consensus, Christchurch recorded more than 30,000 extra cycling trips over two weeks, and is the energy crisis a renewable inflection point?
Activists occupy controversial gold drilling site
25 Mar 2026
By Max Frethey, Local Democracy Reporter | Opposition in Golden Bay to a controversial gold mine at Sams Creek has flared up over the weekend after several activists briefly occupied a drilling site.
China has a new competitor? Kazakhstan reveals huge rare Earth deposit that could power the next tech boom
25 Feb 2026
China’s grip on rare earths might finally see some competition, and the world is already taking notice.
Sci-tech prioritisation report is a joke that could cost NZ dearly, says NZ Association of Scientists
Thu 2 Apr 2026
Media release: New Zealand Association of Scientists | The Prioritisation Report released yesterday by the Prime Minister’s Science Innovation and Technology Council makes a poor case for further cuts and changes to our research system.
DOC trims costs and winds down jobs for nature
10 Nov 2025
The Department of Conservation (DOC) is entering a new phase of tighter budgets and structural change as it winds down the pandemic-era Jobs for Nature programme and reshapes its operations to absorb long-term cost pressures.
AI’s arrival complicates Big Tech climate goals, and some worry it’s locking in more fossil fuels
Thu 2 Apr 2026
Six years ago, Google was confident that by 2030 it would power all operations with electricity generated from clean sources, including wind and solar power, and remove as much pollution as it produced. Today it calls those goals a “moonshot.” Microsoft says it’s still aiming to remove more carbon than it creates by 2030 but now describes the effort as “a marathon, not a sprint.”
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.
Momentum speeds up for low-emissions heavy transport
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand’s heavy vehicle sector is starting to move toward lower-emissions alternatives, with electric vehicles now delivering cost savings as well as lower emissions.
Infrastructure plan calls for ‘predictable approach’ to electrifying economy
18 Feb 2026
Aotearoa’s first National Infrastructure Plan, introduced to Parliament yesterday, calls for "a predictable approach to electrifying the economy" as one of ten priorities for the next decade.
‘Stop burning fossil fuels’ pleads scientist as extreme rain causes floods yet again
27 Mar 2026
Northland and Auckland have again been lashed by heavy rain, with hundreds of people evacuated last night because of extensive flooding in the Far North, and some areas hit by more than a month's average rainfall in just 24 hours.
AI tool predicts wildfire danger faster than current systems
26 Mar 2026
Media release | A wildfire forecasting system powered by artificial intelligence could help detect dangerous fire conditions earlier and reduce the cost of wildfire response, according to new research from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury.
Record wind output helps shield the UK from worst of Iran war fallout
Wed 1 Apr 2026
Record output from wind farms has helped boost total clean power supplies in the United Kingdom to new highs so far in 2026, and allowed power firms to pare use of fossil fuels to multi-year lows.
