Topics tagged with 'Carbon News world'
A rare behind the scenes look at the Pacific power tussle
6 Sep 2024
Tonga’s sleepy capital Nuku’alofa was buzzing last week as leaders from across the Pacific region descended upon it for the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting.
Australia may delay release of 2035 climate target as world awaits outcome of US election
6 Sep 2024
Experts urge Australia not to delay target too long as report by Climate Change Authority identifies six barriers to net zero.
Former VW chief goes on trial nine years after 'dieselgate'
6 Sep 2024
Former Volkswagen Chief Executive Martin Winterkorn appeared in court on fraud charges over the so-called dieselgate scandal.
‘Dangerously hot’ weather roasts US west as brutal summer continues
6 Sep 2024
California, Nevada and Arizona swelter in what could be the most intense heatwave of an already blazing season.
Pope and Imam of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque make joint call to protect planet
6 Sep 2024
Pope Francis and the grand imam of Southeast Asia’s largest mosque vow to fight religiously inspired violence and protect the environment.
US climate envoy Podesta to visit China from Wednesday for talks
5 Sep 2024
US climate envoy John Podesta will visit China for three days to discuss climate change issues, as the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gas look to bridge gaps on issues such as finance.
Forest Stewardship Council suspends company logging in uncontacted South American peoples' territory
5 Sep 2024
The Forest Stewardship Council has “provisionally suspended” a logging company operating in the territory of the uncontacted Mashco Piro Indigenous People, who live in voluntary isolation in the rainforests of Peru. But why was it ever certified in the first place?
Heavy monsoon rains and floods kill at least 33 in south India and 5 children in Pakistan
5 Sep 2024
Heavy monsoon rains and floods have killed at least 33 people in southern India and five children in Pakistan over the past two days, authorities said.
UK’s methane hotspots include landfills and last coalmine
5 Sep 2024
Greenpeace urges UK’s Labour to ‘fulfil international obligations’ as critics question accuracy of official data.
Tropical forests face increased soil carbon loss due to climate change
5 Sep 2024
Tropical forests account for more than 50% of the global terrestrial carbon sink, but climate change threatens to alter the carbon balance of these ecosystems.
We can power our future by breaking free from the tyranny of fossil fuels
5 Sep 2024
By Christiana Figueres | OPINION: The upcoming Summit of the Future is an opportunity to shift our path away from fossil fuels and build a better world for our children.
Pacific Islanders need climate action – not greenwashing – from Azerbaijan
4 Sep 2024
Comment: As host of the COP29 summit, Baku must stop fossil fuel expansion, cut its emissions further, and work to deliver an ambitious climate finance goal.
Supply of high-quality carbon credits must be a COP29 priority
4 Sep 2024
Conversations about the role and integrity of carbon credits have increased lately, as governments and corporations around the world tackle the complex challenge of decarbonisation.
How climate change accelerated Australia's spring winds
4 Sep 2024
Strong winds in eastern Australia this week are being driven by climate change interfering with jet streams, the powerful high-altitude winds that encircle the globe.
Renewable energy auction secures enough power for 11m UK homes
4 Sep 2024
Great Britain’s renewable energy auction has secured enough new clean electricity projects to power 11m UK homes after the Labour government made record funding available to suppliers.
African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP per year with climate change
4 Sep 2024
African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP every year as they bear a heavier burden than the rest of the world from climate change, a new report said Monday after one of the continent’s hottest years on record.
Australia sweats through hottest August on record with temperatures 3C above average
3 Sep 2024
The 2024 winter was the second hottest on record since weather data collection began in 1910.
‘These ideas are incredibly popular’: what is degrowth and can it save the planet?
3 Sep 2024
The post-growth movement says GDP is the wrong way to measure progress and we need a radical economic rewiring.
Looking for stability in a volatile stock market? Try green energy
3 Sep 2024
A novel statistical technique used to track global financial markets reveals the potential of clean energy investments to buffer against losses.
How ‘climate mainstreaming’ can address climate change and further development goals
3 Sep 2024
Canada’s first National Adaptation Strategy urges Canadians to consider climate change impacts in their everyday decisions.
Hempcrete: The green brick taking on the challenge of climate change
3 Sep 2024
Hempcrete is a bio-based building material helping to power the drive to net-zero, but how can a product developed a millennia ago help tackle today's environmental challenges?
Climate change as a moral trigger: Starbucks and corporate jets
3 Sep 2024
The Starbucks saga reminds us that we live in an era of heightened climate sensibilities, where corporate reputations are tarnished by small acts of CEO’s perceived climate transgressions.
Surging methane emissions could be a sign of a major climate shift
2 Sep 2024
New studies suggest global warming boosts natural methane releases, which could undermine efforts to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas from fossil fuels and agriculture.
Green groups call on UK govt to stop subsidies for biomass plant
2 Sep 2024
More than 40 groups are calling on the government to scrap plans to pay billions in subsidies to the Drax biomass power plant, which was recently revealed as the country's worst carbon emitter.
Victory for South Korean climate activists as government ordered to improve carbon cutting plans
2 Sep 2024
It is the first ever legal case in East Asia challenging national climate policies so it could set a precedent.
A ‘global cold rush’ is reshaping the planet, and how the world eats
2 Sep 2024
Nicola Twilley, author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves, says the expansion of the world's cold chain has wide-ranging climate implications.
Could permeable pavement ease flooding woes in New York City?
2 Sep 2024
It can’t help cities control the weather, but by slowing the flow of stormwater, permeable pavement can lessen flooding from big storms.
Changing how the rich eat would free up two times the emissions required for the diets of the poor to grow
2 Sep 2024
If we changed the world’s consumption patterns to focus more on plants and less on meat, we could reduce global emissions by almost 20%, a new study shows.
‘Immoral and unacceptable’: Tuvalu calls on Australia to set urgent deadline to end fossil fuels
30 Aug 2024
A day after agreement was ratified at the Pacific Island Forum, the country’s climate minister says ‘root cause of climate change’ must be addressed.
Canada wildfires last year released more carbon than several countries
30 Aug 2024
Wildfires that swept Canada's woodlands last year released more greenhouse gases than some of the largest emitting countries, calling into question national emissions budgets that rely on forests to be carbon stores.
GOP-led states urge Supreme Court to pause EPA plan meant to cut methane emissions by 80%
30 Aug 2024
Republican officials in 24 states asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to halt a Biden administration effort to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas methane, adding to a series of emergency appeals challenging environmental regulations.
Record number of Americans killed by heat in 2023: Research
30 Aug 2024
Extreme heat killed more Americans in 2023 than any other year over nearly a quarter century of records, according to research.
New £38 million centre to study ‘alternative proteins’ launched in UK
30 Aug 2024
Scientists will explore whether lab-grown meat or proteins from sources such as insects, plants, fungi, and microbes could form part of the UK diet.
BBC accused of doing PR for major polluters
29 Aug 2024
The broadcaster’s in-house content studio has been paid to promote fossil fuel firms and petrostates with a history of persecuting journalists.
EU faces lawsuits over emissions rules, 'green' label for planes
29 Aug 2024
Environmental campaigners have taken the European Commission to court, seeking to force Brussels to upgrade its emissions rules for 2030 and, in a second case, scrap rules that label some planes as climate-friendly investments.
Expect energy shocks if producers assume oil demand dip by 2050, says Exxon
29 Aug 2024
The world is in for an energy shock if oil producers start assuming that a dip in global demand will occur by 2050, according to ExxonMobil.
More than 40% of world’s electricity came from zero-carbon sources in 2023
29 Aug 2024
Investments in renewables continue to outpace fossil fuels, a BloombergNEF report finds.
UN chief issues climate SOS, warns of ‘unimaginable’ catastrophe
28 Aug 2024
Speaking at a meeting of Pacific Island leaders in Tonga, Antonio Guterres warned the region was ‘uniquely exposed’.
Caribbean islands hope UN court will end ‘debt cycle’ caused by climate crisis
28 Aug 2024
The outcome of an international court case on climate change obligations could strengthen the legal position of Caribbean islands claiming damages from developed countries after natural disasters, lawyers say.
Thwaites Glacier won’t collapse like dominoes as feared, study finds, but that doesn’t mean the ‘Doomsday Glacier’ is stable
28 Aug 2024
Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier got its nickname the “Doomsday Glacier” for its potential to flood coastlines around the world if it collapsed.
Australian homeowners struggling to afford insurance as climate risks grow, report says
28 Aug 2024
Home insurance is becoming unaffordable for a growing number of Australian households as increased climate threats drive up their premiums.
China coal plant approvals plunge as green power grows: Study
28 Aug 2024
China approved the building of nine gigawatts of coal power generation in the first half of 2024, down by more than 80 per cent compared with a year earlier as the nation adds renewable energy capacity in record amounts.
Solar above, batteries below: here’s how warehouses and shopping centres could produce 25% of Australia’s power
27 Aug 2024
Imagine if Australian cities became major producers of clean energy, rather than relying on far-flung solar and wind farms.
Floods swamp Bangladesh as nation finds its feet after protests
27 Aug 2024
Floods triggered by torrential rains have swamped a swath of low-lying Bangladesh, adding to the new government's challenges after weeks of political turmoil.
1,500 policies to fix global warming were implemented in 41 countries. Here are the ones that worked best
27 Aug 2024
As the need for effective global climate action becomes ever more urgent, a “first-of-its-kind” analysis has identified policies around the world that have done the most to rein in planet-heating pollution.
Communicating consensus strengthens beliefs about climate change, finds 27-country study
27 Aug 2024
Climate scientists have long agreed that humans are largely responsible for climate change.
Will we be ready? Geoengineering policy lags far behind pace of climate change
27 Aug 2024
The history of geoengineering policymaking has been piecemeal over past decades, with U.N. bodies failing to create or implement rigorous binding international regulatory frameworks.
Australia passes landmark bill mandating climate risk disclosures for companies
26 Aug 2024
New reporting standards require climate resilience assessments under both 1.5°C and 2.5°C warming scenarios.
Pacific Islands leaders to meet as region faces ‘polycrisis’ of threats
26 Aug 2024
The last time UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a summit with the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum, he made international news as he stood thigh-deep, dressed in a suit and tie, in the sea off the coast of Tuvalu.
Summer heat arrives in August, threatening to break all-time Australian winter temperature records
26 Aug 2024
Extraordinary August heat is developing across Australia, causing temperatures to spike up to 16 degrees Celsius above average while threatening all-time seasonal records in multiple states.
Farm-level emissions cuts possible, but almost everything stands in the way
18 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Progress to slash farming emissions is being blocked by limited farmer confidence in mitigation tools, inconsistent engagement, misinformation and a lack of clear policy signals, according to a new report.
State-owned farmer drives profit growth with emissions reductions
Fri 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.
NZ’s government wants tourism to drive economic growth – but how will it deal with aviation emissions?
22 Oct 2025
By Robert McLachlan, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University | Following a brief dip during the COVID pandemic, aviation is back in a growth phase.
Air NZ inks deal for its first internationally verified carbon credits
9 Oct 2025
By Liz Kivi | Air New Zealand has committed to buying 8000 tonnes of carbon removals by 2030, in partnership with local native forest investment platform My Native Forest.
‘Cali Fund’ aiming to raise billions for nature receives first donation – of just $1,000
16 Dec 2025
A major biodiversity fund – which could, in theory, generate billions of dollars annually for conservation – received its first donation of just $1,000 in November.
Govt launches strategy backing wood-based heat sector
23 Oct 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Forestry biomass could replace as much as 40% of fossil fuel-generated process heat by 2050, but access to supply, regulatory settings and business cases for converting to wood-based heat sources are required, the Government says in a series of documents released yesterday.
Climate law change spanner in the works for Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry
Fri 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.
Govt unveils plans for carbon storage regulations – and ETS rewards
18 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Government has released plans to regulate carbon capture and storage in natural geological formations, which include Emissions Trading Scheme incentives, with the aim of introducing related legislation in 2026.
Global coal demand hit record high this year but is set to decline by 2030
18 Dec 2025
Global coal demand reached a record high in 2025 but is expected to decline by 2030 as renewables, nuclear power and abundant natural gas squeeze its dominance in power generation.
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.
RMA’s successors hinge on two untested bets
17 Dec 2025
Two ideas sit at the heart of the Government’s replacement for the Resource Management Act: regulatory relief and spatial planning.
India at COP30: A mismatch between grandstanding and climate action
11 Dec 2025
Despite India’s attempt to anoint itself as the leader of the developing world, at the COP30 summit, New Delhi’s track record remains contradictory.
Govt warned that scrapping ag emission pricing comes with risks
11 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s move to halt plans for agricultural emissions pricing without replacing it with any other action will leave New Zealand facing a bigger gap to meet its third emissions budget, Environment ministry officials have warned.
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.
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.
Pacific climate response in question as NZ finance remains unclear
Fri 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.
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.
Hydrogen emissions are ‘supercharging’ the warming impact of methane
Fri 19 Dec 2025
The warming impact of hydrogen has been “overlooked” in projections of climate change, according to authors of the latest “global hydrogen budget”.
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.”
Westpac NZ announces partnership to form Blue Economy hub in Nelson
17 Dec 2025
Media release | Westpac NZ has announced a new three-year partnership with the Nelson Regional Development Agency and Kernohan Engineering to help accelerate the development of a sustainable marine economy – also known as the blue economy.
NZ ‘clearly’ breaching international law on climate – Vanuatu Climate Change Minister
12 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | Vanuatu’s Climate Change Minister, Ralph Regenvanu, says New Zealand restarting fossil fuel exploration and subsidies is an obvious breach of international law, exposing the country to international and domestic litigation.
Govt slammed for weakening methane target
15 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams The Government has pushed through legislation under urgency to almost halve New Zealand’s 2050 methane target – a move Opposition parties say disregards scientific advice, breaks the country’s hard-won political consensus on climate action, and shifts the burden of higher warming and higher future costs onto the next generation.
COP30 microcosm of difficult geopolitics, says Vanuatu's Climate Minister
15 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | Despite ‘intransigent’ states blocking multilateralism and a disappointing official outcome, Vanuatu’s Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu says he left the COP30 climate summit feeling more positive than after previous UN climate conferences.
Hiringa eyes green methanol plant near Whanganui
29 Jul 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Green hydrogen pioneer Hiringa Energy is deep in planning to develop an “eight-to-nine figure” methanol plant near Whanganui, using a combination of biomass and hydrogen produced using renewable energy.
Insurers welcome govt decision to keep NHC levy unchanged
21 Nov 2025
Media release |The Insurance Council of New Zealand | Te Kāhui Inihua o Aotearoa (ICNZ) has welcomed the Government’s decision to leave the Natural Hazards Commission levy unchanged, amid ongoing concerns around the cost-of-living.
Why I’m not outraged at the Govt’s latest climate backsliding
7 Nov 2025
COMMENT: The Government’s latest climate rollbacks underline New Zealand’s long history of a lack of genuine desire to cut emissions, writes Geoff Bertram.
Three Greenpeace activists removed by police from Fonterra
17 Dec 2025
Media release | Three Greenpeace activists were removed by police from Fonterra’s downtown Auckland offices, following a protest on Monday at the Shareholders’ Fund meeting over the corporation’s role in the contamination of rural communities’ drinking water.
Oil and gas majors would create $78bn more value by stopping exploration
11 Dec 2025
Media release | Ten of the world’s largest oil and gas companies would create significantly more shareholder value by ending exploration and sharply curtailing upstream development, according to new analysis released today by ACCR.
Wetlands and biodiversity at risk as mining rules loosen: Greenpeace
Fri 19 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Greenpeace says Government changes to national direction instruments under the RMA paves the way for mining in wetlands and biodiversity hotspots and will expose some of Aotearoa’s most fragile ecosystems to irreversible damage.
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.
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.
Offshore windfarms enhance function of coastal waters and diversity of aquatic life
Fri 19 Dec 2025
Media release | A study conducted by researchers from Murdoch University in Australia and Dalian Ocean University in China has found that offshore windfarms can improve marine ecosystems and diversify aquatic food chains.
‘A shift no country can ignore’: where global emissions stand, 10 years after the Paris climate agreement
16 Dec 2025
The watershed summit in 2015 was far from perfect, but its impact so far has been significant and measurable.
Govt consulting on Pacific Resilience Facility
12 Dec 2025
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee is calling for submissions on its international treaty examination of the Agreement to Establish the Pacific Resilience Facility.
Govt green lights rural recycling scheme
4 Dec 2025
The Government has approved new regulations to bring rural waste schemes under one unified framework.
KiwiRail pauses coal trains amid rising climate protests
9 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Climate activists are ramping up actions this week, with a Christchurch protest leading to KiwiRail pausing some coal train operations on Saturday, and another protest against the Fast-Track Amendment Bill planned for parliament today.
Straterra has a new name: the New Zealand Minerals Council
16 Apr 2025
Media release | Straterra has been renamed as New Zealand Minerals Council, says chief executive Josie Vidal.
Could tidal energy one day power NZ?
18 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New research suggests Aotearoa holds some of the world’s strongest tidal-stream energy potential – enough to generate up to 93% of today’s electricity use – but one expert cautions that extracting energy at such a scale could have significant impacts and remains highly uncertain.
NZ could lose nearly all glaciers this century without stronger climate action
16 Dec 2025
New Zealand could see 97% of its glaciers vanish by 2100, with new international modelling projecting a rapid acceleration in glacier extinction from the 2030s onward – even under lower-warming scenarios.
Solar households to get little-noticed tax break
23 Sep 2025
A provision in the government’s latest tax bill would exempt households from paying tax on income they earn by selling excess electricity back to the grid.
Last minute change to oil and gas legislation over cleanup costs
31 Jul 2025
By Liz Kivi | The government is expected to repeal the oil and gas ban today, with a last-minute amendment handing discretionary power to two ministers over the controversial issue of decommissioning.
The surprisingly convincing case against cars
Fri 19 Dec 2025
Life After Cars dares to imagine how different, and enriching, a car-free world could be.
Kaicycle celebrates ten years of collective climate action in Pōneke
14 Nov 2025
Media release: Kaicycle | Since 2015, Kaicycle has grown from a humble pilot project growing kai and collecting compost on bicycles into the thriving urban farm and composting hub that Wellingtonians know and love.
Heatwaves, downpours and droughts – Auckland on track for more extreme weather
1 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New projections show Auckland will face more heatwaves, heavier downpours, worsening droughts and growing coastal threats as climate extremes intensify, according to a new report from Earth Sciences New Zealand.
NZ just had its hottest spring in at least 116 years
10 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | This year New Zealand had its hottest spring since records began, with widespread heat, rainfall extremes and destructive wind driven by sudden stratospheric warming.
Media round-up
12 Dec 2025
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: Another offshore wind firm exits New Zealand over a clash with seabed mining; Fonterra falls behind on its climate goals as farm emissions remain flat; and the businesses trapped by the gas 'death spiral'.
