Topics tagged with 'Carbon News world'
More climate records fall in world's warmest February
11 Mar 2024
Last month was the world's warmest February in modern times, the EU's climate service says, extending the run of monthly records to nine in a row.
Fossil fuel firms seek UN carbon market cash for old gas plants
11 Mar 2024
Fossil fuel companies are aiming to profit from a new United Nations’ carbon market by selling carbon credits linked to gas-fired power plants they have already built.
AI likely to increase energy use and accelerate climate misinformation – report
11 Mar 2024
Claims that artificial intelligence will help solve the climate crisis are misguided, with the technology instead likely cause rising energy use and turbocharge the spread of climate disinformation, a coalition of environmental groups has warned.
Toyota is hitting the gas on hybrids as EV sales cool. But what does that mean for the planet?
11 Mar 2024
It was just over a year ago that Toyota appeared to acknowledge it had dropped the ball on electric vehicles.
Social sciences can help explain why the world is not moving fast enough on climate change
11 Mar 2024
In late 2023 the United States government released its Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA).
How a Colombian city cooled dramatically in just three years
8 Mar 2024
With “green corridors” that mimic the natural forest, the Colombian city is driving down temperatures — and could become five degrees cooler over the next few decades.
El Niño predicted to supercharge record global heating in 2024
8 Mar 2024
The current El Niño event — which has been impacting global temperatures and weather since July of last year — is predicted to continue to drive record heat in 2024, according to a new modeling analysis.
Arctic could be ‘ice-free’ within a decade, scientists warn
8 Mar 2024
The Arctic could become ice-free for the first time on a late August or early September day in the 2020s or 2030s, according to a new peer reviewed study from researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
UN-backed bank group seeks to avoid departures with new climate guidelines
8 Mar 2024
A United Nations-backed alliance of banks is proposing its members disclose more information on their commitments to tackle climate change without requiring them to coordinate action.
How to hold shipping financially accountable for its climate impacts
8 Mar 2024
A levy on shipping emissions will be discussed by governments at IMO talks this month, with climate-vulnerable nations seeking funding from the industry.
How climate change will transform river flows and landscapes
8 Mar 2024
New research provides one of clearest views yet of how thawing permafrost and an accelerated water cycle will alter ecosystems.
The fires sweeping across Texas offer a terrifying warning
7 Mar 2024
As flames raced eastward across the Texas Panhandle for the fourth straight day at speeds faster than a person can run, a cold front, driving a snow squall, swept over the Great Plains.
Actually, clean tech investment is still going strong
7 Mar 2024
If you read a selection of recent headlines about clean technology in the U.S., it would be easy to think that the sector is in a free fall.
World-first carbon border tax shows teething problems
7 Mar 2024
A small fraction of European companies have complied with an early reporting deadline on their carbon-intensive imports, underlining the challenge of EU efforts to tax Co2 heavy products entering the bloc from 2026.
Meat industry using ‘misinformation’ to block dietary change, report finds
7 Mar 2024
The agriculture sector has spent millions of dollars on discrediting plant-based diets, a new report has claimed.
A role for nuclear in Australia’s climate response?
7 Mar 2024
In the facts-lite political debate, the opportunities and comparative advantages of solar are being sidelined.
France is one step closer to taxing fast fashion
7 Mar 2024
Proposed by parliament ministers, a new bill suggests fines of up to 10 euros or 50 percent of the selling price of garments for major players like Shein, aiming to counterbalance their environmental impact.
Melbourne Extinction Rebellion climate activists jailed for disrupting traffic
6 Mar 2024
Two environmental activists have been jailed for causing major traffic disruptions in Melbourne, after they used a rental truck to block the West Gate Bridge.
Iceland is closing the circle on geothermal
6 Mar 2024
Iceland is pioneering a circular economy based on its abundant geothermal energy, offering a replicable template for the world’s net-zero transition.
Financial toll of climate crisis hitting women harder, UN says
6 Mar 2024
Women in rural areas suffer substantially greater economic losses from the impacts of climate breakdown than men in developing countries, research has shown, and the gap is likely to widen.
It’s time we include cities and regions as equal partners in global climate negotiations
6 Mar 2024
COP28 made history in Dubai by introducing — for the very first time — language on “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems” in the final version of the negotiated text.
Protecting climate refugees requires a legal definition
6 Mar 2024
While there is much talk about climate migration, there is still no legal framework to protect people displaced by climate disasters.
90% of Himalayas will face year-long drought at 3°C warming
6 Mar 2024
The findings show that 80% of the increased human exposure to heat stress in India could be avoided by sticking to UN climate goals.
‘We don’t need air con’: how Burkina Faso builds schools that stay cool in 40C heat
5 Mar 2024
Architects use local materials and merge traditional techniques with modern technology to make schools and orphanages cool, welcoming places.
Spanish power almost free with record renewable generations
5 Mar 2024
Spanish power prices have tumbled in February to a fraction of the price in neighbouring France as record wind and solar power generation in Spain has triggered an extreme slump in prices.
Plastic recycling is a scam
5 Mar 2024
The fossil fuel industry has known for decades that recycling alone won't solve the plastic crisis. But it's spending millions to convince the public otherwise.
Funding for new research from Antarctica, which affirms the threat of the ‘doomsday glacier,’ running out
5 Mar 2024
In a worst case scenario, rising global temperatures and marine heatwaves could melt enough of the Thwaites Glacier and other Antarctic ice to raise sea levels 10 feet by the early 2100s.
Report: harmful waste creation set to increase
5 Mar 2024
The United Nations Environment Programme said in a report that public waste creation will greatly increase by 2050, causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage through biodiversity loss, climate change, and deadly pollution.
ESG Watch: How transition finance can 'bring the bad guys in'
5 Mar 2024
If 2023 was the year that investors started to ask companies to move from disclosing their climate risks to tackling them, 2024 looks like being the year when they start to work out how to pay for it.
Energy-related CO2 emissions hit record levels in 2023
4 Mar 2024
Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose to a record level in 2023, but the growth slowed from previous years thanks to continued expansion of clean technologies, the International Energy Agency said.
Texas battles second-biggest wildfire in US history
4 Mar 2024
A rapidly spreading Texas wildfire has killed one person, forced residents to evacuate, cut off power to homes and businesses, and briefly paused operations at a nuclear facility.
Nations fail to agree on solar geoengineering
4 Mar 2024
At talks in Nairobi, governments could not find consensus on new global governance for SRM, including proposals for “non-use” and a UN expert panel.
Rewilding Ireland: ‘Undoing the damage’ from a history of deforestation
4 Mar 2024
Eoghan Daltun has spent the past 14 years successfully rewilding 29 hectares (73 acres) of farmland on the Beara Peninsula in southwestern Ireland.
Decades after the US buried nuclear waste abroad, climate change could unearth it
4 Mar 2024
A new report says melting ice sheets and rising seas could disturb waste from US nuclear projects in Greenland and the Marshall Islands.
Colombian community displaced by coastal erosion takes case to human rights commission
4 Mar 2024
A Colombian community under threat from coastal erosion will have their case heard by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Europe’s carbon price crash looks like serious market myopia
1 Mar 2024
The emissions trading system is too clunky to deliver the required impetus to decarbonisation.
People displaced by climate crisis to testify in first-of-its-kind hearing in US
1 Mar 2024
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will hear how climate is driving forced migration across the Americas.
NYC pensions sued for shedding fossil fuels
1 Mar 2024
Monica Weiss joined college students, financial experts, faith leaders, and then-New York City Public Advocate Letitia James to demand that the NYC's five public pension funds factor the financial risks of climate change into their investment decisions.
Alarming Africa-wide report predicts 30% drop in crop revenue, 50 million without water
1 Mar 2024
African countries will suffer significant economic loss after 2050 if global warming is not limited to below 2°C, a new study by the Center for Global Development has found.
Real solutions to climate change in Africa are about people, not profit
1 Mar 2024
The continent’s leaders should resist quick fixes and deadly traps offered by the market and bring the people at the centre of the climate action.
EU's appetite for Beyond Meat lifts share price
1 Mar 2024
At first glance, the fourth quarter earnings report published in February by the plant-based foods company Beyond Meat is nothing to write home about.
Climate change: 'Ice bumps' reveal history of Antarctic melting
29 Feb 2024
Scientists say they now have a better idea of exactly where and when the margin of Antarctica started melting.
Australia's capital cities will see number of hot days double by 2050 without urgent climate change action
29 Feb 2024
By the time today's children reach retirement, Australia's capital cities will swelter through at least twice as many days over 35 degrees and large swathes of the country will be all but uninhabitable for much of the year.
Wild weather threatens much of US with snow, tornadoes, heat and fires
29 Feb 2024
Millions of Americans are facing extreme weather whiplash this week — notably in cities including Chicago and Dallas, which were forecast to swing from record highs to wintry lows.
How farmers are preparing for a saltier future
29 Feb 2024
As salinity affects more cultivated land due to climate change, researchers and growers are turning to salt-tolerant crops.
EU poised to OK major plan to meet climate goals despite farmer protests
29 Feb 2024
The European Union is on the brink of approving a major plan to fight climate change and better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc after protests from farmers.
Engineering plants with deeper roots could be a huge climate boon
29 Feb 2024
By tweaking a key plant hormone, researchers believe we can grow crops that burrow deeper into the soil, lock up carbon, clean up pollution, and more.
UN meeting on climate change kicks off in Nairobi with focus on plastics
28 Feb 2024
World leaders are in Nairobi to debate and make decisions on 19 pressing environmental issues at the world’s largest environmental gathering.
Scientists under arrest: the researchers taking action over climate change
28 Feb 2024
Fed up with a lack of political progress in solving the climate problem, some researchers are becoming activists to slow global warming.
Flooded Greek lake a warning to European farmers battling climate change
28 Feb 2024
Sitting in a small motorboat, farmer Babis Evangelinos glides over land he once cultivated on the Thessaly plain in central Greece, the nearby trunks of his fruitless almond trees submerged by floodwater.
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.
Climate experts say spring is coming earlier. How will that affect agriculture and ecosystems?
Tue 7 Apr 2026
An earlier spring affects when migratory birds arrive, leaves emerge, and fruit ripens — among plants and animals that determine ecosystem health.
$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.
Environmental groups launch legal action over Govt's 'tick-box approach' to conservation land
Wed 8 Apr 2026
By Liz Kivi | Forest & Bird and the Environmental Defence Society are taking the Government to court over decisions about the future of publicly-owned land on Te Tai Poutini/the West Coast.
New alliance wants renewable-led energy – and Govt to press pause on LNG
Thu 9 Apr 2026
A newly formed coalition of business, consumer and energy organisations has unveiled a renewable-led strategy it says will strengthen the country’s energy security, and it’s calling on the Government to pause its plan for an LNG import terminal.
Supply-side pressures and political uncertainty ahead for carbon market
Tue 7 Apr 2026
By Kristen Green | ANALYSIS: With failed auctions, a surge of new forestry registrations, and an election a few months away, the NZ ETS in 2026 will be subject to a mix of supply-side pressures and political uncertainty.
Economic contraction will impact carbon market
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.
Genesis fires up pellet study with Nature’s Flame
Wed 8 Apr 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Genesis Energy is extending its quest for locally produced torrefied wood pellets to supplement coal and gas to fuel its Huntly power station, announcing it is investigating plant construction with established local solid fuels player Nature’s Flame.
Death toll in Afghanistan flooding increases to 28, authorities say
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 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.
EA entrenches 10kW export limit for residential solar
Wed 8 Apr 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | The Electricity Authority intends to require all electricity networks to offer at least a 10 kilowatt (kW) export capacity for residential rooftop and other small-scale distributed generation.
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.
Severe tropical cyclones Maila And Vaianu threaten communities in Solomon Islands, PNG and Fiji
Wed 8 Apr 2026
Media release: 350.org |Two Category 3 Tropical Cyclones are currently moving through the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Fiji, while experts watch a third system potentially developing in the North Pacific.
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.
Renewable build-out runs into grid and firming limits
Wed 8 Apr 2026
New Zealand's electricity market entered 2026 with renewable generation at record levels and a substantial build pipeline finally moving from paper to construction. The harder question is whether the wider system can absorb and firm that capacity fast enough.
A matter of strategy
Tue 7 Apr 2026
COMMENT: Even on the brink of a global commodities crisis, the possibilities for climate action aren't hopelessly foreclosed. Strategy can turn our fortunes around, writes David Hall.
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.
New protections for NZ migratory species under UN convention
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.
Fonterra admits ‘100% grass-fed’ claim breached law in greenwashing row
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.
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
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.
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.
Free fares call as fuel crisis impacts school attendance
Wed 8 Apr 2026
An open letter is urging the Government to make public transport free for all school children and subsidised for students under 25, as rising fuel costs begin to impact attendance and access to education across the country.
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?
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.
Solar energy, cheap battery storage can meet 90% of India’s power demand at affordable costs: Ember report
Thu 9 Apr 2026
Battery storage is now cheap enough in India that solar power can meet 90% of the country’s power demand at lower lifetime costs than current average purchase rates in most states, a new study has found, a finding that could potentially point to a future buffer against global energy shocks.
Sci-tech prioritisation report is a joke that could cost NZ dearly, says NZ Association of Scientists
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.
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.
AI’s arrival complicates Big Tech climate goals, and some worry it’s locking in more fossil fuels
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.
Fuel crisis powers surge in EV interest in Asia-Pacific region
Tue 7 Apr 2026
Motorists across the Asia-Pacific region are switching to electric vehicles at a rapid pace, as rising fuel costs due to the Middle East war force consumers and companies to reconsider their reliance on petrol and diesel vehicles.
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.
Dairy farmers' lack of climate action 'even bleaker' than water inaction – Upton
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.
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.
Fast-track approved project could deliver NZ’s largest wind farm
Tue 7 Apr 2026
Media release: New Zealand Government |Fast-track approval has been granted for New Zealand’s largest wind farm project.
