Topics tagged with 'Carbon News world'
Meat is a leading emissions source – but few outlets report on it, analysis finds
1 Oct 2025
Less than 4% of climate news stories mention animal agriculture as source of carbon emissions, according to new analysis.
Low-cost clean energy now trumps politics, says architect of Paris Accord
30 Sep 2025
As Climate Week delegates turn to COP, Christiana Figueres says the debate over green investment is being negated by the fall in cost.
US Energy Department adds ‘climate change’ and ‘emissions’ to banned words list
30 Sep 2025
The Energy Department has added “climate change,” “green” and “decarbonisation” to its growing “list of words to avoid” at its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
‘I couldn’t look’: European farmers on losing crops as the industry collides with worsening drought
30 Sep 2025
Global heating means annual drought losses across Europe could reach €17.5bn. Shipping and power generation are also being affected by low water levels.
Ocean acidification threatens planetary health
30 Sep 2025
The newly published 2025 Planetary Health Check report confirms transgression of the ocean acidification planetary boundary — the seventh Earth system threshold crossed, putting a “safe operating space for humanity” at risk.
Singapore to contract high-quality nature-based carbon credits from four projects in Ghana, Peru, and Paraguay
30 Sep 2025
The Singapore government will purchase 2.175 million tonnes of nature-based carbon credits from projects in Ghana, Peru, and Paraguay, marking one of its largest commitments to international offsets to date.
The political killings you don’t hear about
30 Sep 2025
While many consider Charlie Kirk’s murder an unprecedented act of political violence, activists across the world are brutally gunned down almost every day for their political speech.
BP predicts higher oil and gas demand, suggesting world will not hit 2050 net zero target
29 Sep 2025
Conflict in Ukraine and Middle East as well as trade tariffs are making states focus on energy security.
What does China’s new Paris Agreement pledge mean for climate action?
29 Sep 2025
President Xi Jinping has personally pledged to cut China’s greenhouse gas emissions to 7-10% below peak levels by 2035, while “striving to do better”.
Electric vehicle sales surge across EU as overall car market stalls
29 Sep 2025
Battery-electric and hybrid models are gaining ground in the EU, while diesel and petrol car sales continue to lose momentum.
Revisiting the geoengineering question
29 Sep 2025
We are already geoengineering the planet today, but badly. Humans are cooling the climate today by emitting 75 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide into the lower atmosphere, almost entirely as a byproduct of burning fossil fuels.
Human-driven climate change intensified super typhoon Ragasa, researchers find
29 Sep 2025
“Super Typhoon Ragasa intensified over waters made hotter by human-caused climate change. These exceptionally warm sea surface temperatures increased the chances that Ragasa would rapidly intensify…”
Heat stress is a major driver of India’s kidney disease epidemic
29 Sep 2025
Cases of chronic kidney disease unrelated to pre-existing conditions are on the rise in India and other tropical nations. As climate change raises temperatures and humidity, the disease is increasingly prevalent among outdoor laborers without access to rest, shade, or hydration.
Chris Bowen meets Turkey’s first lady as lobbying to hold Cop31 intensifies
26 Sep 2025
Climate minister, who is trying to persuade Turkey to allow Australia to host the summit, appears with Emine Erdoğan at New York event.
Former world leaders call for fossil fuel taxes to fund global climate action
26 Sep 2025
Dozens of former world leaders, including ex-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have called for permanent taxes on fossil fuel profits to fund climate action.
Vanuatu pursues new UN resolution to turn ICJ climate opinion into action
26 Sep 2025
The Pacific island nation, which led a campaign for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to clarify states’ climate duties, said the legal opinion must not be “left on paper”.
Familiar tensions emerge at the Pacific Islands Forum
26 Sep 2025
With China-Taiwan rivalry, China-Western competition, and big carbon emitters at odds with the islands on climate policy, there is plenty of tension to go around.
How to track the super polluters next door
26 Sep 2025
A new interactive map and groundbreaking database allows people in the world’s largest metropolitan areas to track their air pollution exposure, along with their region’s biggest sources of planet-warming pollution.
China makes landmark pledge to cut its climate emissions
25 Sep 2025
China, the world's biggest source of planet-warming gases, has for the first time committed to an absolute target to cut its emissions.
Regenerative agriculture is all over the agenda at Climate Week NYC. But what does it mean?
25 Sep 2025
Critics say the term is vague and are pushing for specific standards so consumers aren’t lured into false climate promises.
Gas makes a comeback at Climate Week
25 Sep 2025
At a number of events on Tuesday, senior officials made a case for gas as essential for energy security and a buttress to renewables
The stupidest speech in UN history
25 Sep 2025
COMMENT: Trump described climate change as not only a “hoax", but even more: “the largest con job ever perpetrated on the planet.”
EU proposes delaying anti-deforestation law, again
25 Sep 2025
The European Commission has proposed pushing back the European Union Deforestation Regulation for another year, to December 2026, citing concerns that its IT system is not yet ready to handle the demands that the regulation would place on it.
With 2035 emissions targets set, what Australia does next will help shape global efforts to keep 1.5°C alive
24 Sep 2025
This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. He will bring something important: Australia’s new 2035 emission cut target of 62–70% on 2005 levels.
How the world’s most elderly country is fighting heat in a deadly double crisis
24 Sep 2025
The alarm device is part of a government push to combat a deadly double emergency: the collision of Japan’s climate crisis and its aging population.
California's Newsom signs sweeping energy affordability package
24 Sep 2025
The new laws address electricity markets, wildfire costs, oil drilling and the state's landmark emissions-trading program.
Trump administration moves to revoke permit for Massachusetts offshore wind project
24 Sep 2025
The Trump administration has moved to block a Massachusetts offshore wind farm, its latest effort to hobble an industry and technology that President Donald Trump has attacked as “ugly” and unreliable compared to fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
UN chief warns 1.5C warming goal at risk of 'collapsing'
23 Sep 2025
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP Friday that efforts to cap climate warming at 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial level are failing, as the UN prepared to host a climate week event alongside its annual diplomatic gathering.
New York readies for record Climate Week despite Trump chill factor
23 Sep 2025
The boost in engagement has come “precisely as an antidote to the current U.S. administration's attitude toward climate change".
Key oceans treaty crosses threshold to come into force
23 Sep 2025
A global agreement designed to protect the world's oceans and reverse damage to marine life is set to become international law.
Nations’ plans to ramp up coal, gas and oil extraction ‘will put climate goals beyond reach’
23 Sep 2025
New data shows governments now planning more fossil fuel production in coming decades than they were in 2023.
As UN climate talks loom in Brazil, many would-be participants fear they can't afford to attend
23 Sep 2025
With less than two months until this year's United Nations climate change conference, many prospective attendees are still looking for housing in the small Brazilian host city of Belem.
Govt has not set 2035 renewables target, downplays 90 per cent
23 Sep 2025
Chris Bowen has declined to offer a timeline for setting a 2035 renewables target, despite the Climate Change Authority's projection that more than 90 per cent renewables would be needed to achieve its recommended climate target.
Will China and the BRICS fill the ‘leadership gap’ on climate change?
22 Sep 2025
Amid a rapidly fracturing geopolitical order, there have been growing calls for China to “step into [the] leadership gap” left by the US on climate change.
Cut emissions 70% by 2035? There’s only one policy that can get us there
22 Sep 2025
To cut emissions fast, the Australian government will have to dial back its command-and-control approach – and put a price on carbon.
The cartoon villain's guide to killing climate action
22 Sep 2025
Let’s run a thought experiment. Imagine that you’re the Secretary of Energy. But you’re not just any public servant. You're a former fossil fuel executive, and you’re cartoonishly, mustache-twirlingly evil.
Climate risks report paints grim picture, but expert on societal collapse explains giving up is not the answer
22 Sep 2025
"I think people dramatically underestimate just how bad [climate change] could get, and also how vulnerable we are to it."
‘Something is working’: UN climate chief optimistic about green transition
22 Sep 2025
Simon Stiell believes economic benefits will compel countries to speed up climate action.
India needs $10tn by 2070 to achieve net zero: Yadav
22 Sep 2025
India needs $10 trillion by 2070 for its net zero goal, focusing on green finance as essential for development and urging developed nations to fulfil their climate commitments.
EU set to miss UN deadline for new target under Paris climate accord
19 Sep 2025
The delay is intended to allow countries more time to agree to an ambitious goal.
Charlie Kirk was a fossil fuel industry plant
19 Sep 2025
Big Oil's money gave Kirk a larger platform to spread baseless climate conspiracy theories—as well as other extremist views.
UN limits staff at COP30 climate summit over accommodation concerns
19 Sep 2025
High hotel prices for Brazil's COP30 climate summit in November have prompted the United Nations to urge its staff to limit attendance, while government delegations are still scrambling to find rooms within their budgets.
Researchers say sealing old oil wells with bio-oil from crop waste is a dual carbon-removal solution
19 Sep 2025
A new analysis shows that oil made from corn husks, wood chips, and other waste could plug greenhouse gas-belching abandoned oil wells while sequestering carbon for about $152 per ton.
IEA reiterates ‘no new oil and gas needed’ if global warming is limited to 1.5C
18 Sep 2025
The world would not need to invest in new oil and gas projects if demand for the fuels fell in line with the 1.5C limit on global warming, says the International Energy Agency.
Al Gore on China’s climate rise: ‘I would not have seen this coming’
18 Sep 2025
Twenty-five years ago, Al Gore was in the final stretch of his U.S. presidential campaign, just weeks away from an election that would ultimately slip through his fingers despite winning the popular vote.
Republican gala dinner in Windsor disrupted by climate protesters ahead of Trump’s UK visit
18 Sep 2025
Climate protesters have interrupted a gala dinner for Republicans in Windsor celebrating Donald Trump’s second state visit to the UK.
Climate risk suburbs: The shocking truth about Aussie house prices
18 Sep 2025
Australia’s property market is hurtling towards a climate reckoning, with billions of dollars in potential losses looming.
Young activists won a landmark state climate trial. Now they’re challenging Trump’s orders
18 Sep 2025
Young climate activists and their attorneys who won a landmark global warming trial against the state of Montana are trying to convince a federal judge to block President Donald Trump’s executive orders promoting fossil fuels.
One city’s race to ‘solarise everything we possibly can’
18 Sep 2025
Bordeaux is quickly transforming itself into France’s top solar-powered city, banking on innovations like transparent panels that preserve its historic architecture.
Ashburton councillor opposes climate strategy he voted for
17 Sep 2025
Jonathan Leask, Local Democracy Reporter | Incumbent Ashburton councillor Phill Hooper says he doesn’t want to waste money on a climate change strategy, despite voting for the policy a few weeks ago.
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.
