Topics tagged with 'Forestry'
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
25 Mar 2020
Parliament meets today to pass legislation putting the country into a state of emergency.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
23 Mar 2020
A meeting of Greater Wellington Regional Council’s climate committee scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak.
MPs put 1.5 million reasons to stop wasting food
20 Mar 2020
New Zealand could cut 1.5 million tonnes from its annual greenhouse gas emissions if it stopped wasting food, MPs say.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
20 Mar 2020
Covid-19-related cancellations continue, with the Agricultural Climate Change Conference scheduled for Palmerston North on April 1 and 2 the latest casualty.
Carbon prices suffer as global economy sweats
19 Mar 2020
The global economic downturn brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic is hitting carbon prices.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
19 Mar 2020
Parliament’s Environment Select Committee is hearing submissions on the Urban Development Bill today.
Scientists back soil sequestration
18 Mar 2020
Soil sequestration could remove billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere, scientists say.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
17 Mar 2020
Restrictions on travel and public gatherings as a result of the spread of the Covid-19 virus are affecting climate-change events.
Super fund dumps big emitters - and fills pockets
16 Mar 2020
New Zealand’s national superannuation fund is hundreds of millions of dollars off because it has shed high-carbon investments, says chief executive Matt Whineray.
ClimCom opens doors to carbon-budget ideas
16 Mar 2020
Energy, transport, farming and forestry businesses are the first sectors to put their vision of a carbon-neutral New Zealand to the body charged with developing the country’s carbon budgets.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
16 Mar 2020
This week’s energy sector conference in Wellington is going ahead, although the coronavirus pandemic means not everyone will be there in person.
Green movement mourns loss of Rob Fenwick
12 Mar 2020
Sustainable business pioneer and environmental activist Sir Rob Fenwick has died.
Councils all talk and little action, says GBC
12 Mar 2020
Most local authorities are talking big on climate action but failing to cut emissions in their own operations, the Green Building Council says.
ClimCom wants to see $50 carbon cap now
10 Mar 2020
The Climate Change Commission says controls on carbon prices should be lifted to about $50 a tonne now.
Ministry sprouts staff as green workload grows
10 Mar 2020
The Ministry for the Environment says its staff numbers have increased as the Government has ramped up its workload.
Veteran activist clear to tackle Big Business
9 Mar 2020
Veteran activist and Iwi Chairs’ Forum spokesman Mike Smith has been given the go-ahead to take some of the country’s largest companies to court in a bid to cut their emissions to zero by 2030.
POLITICS: Nats declare war on RMA
9 Mar 2020
The Resource Management Act will be toast under a National Government.
EDITORIAL: Loss of a leader
6 Mar 2020
By ADELIA HALLETT | Jeanette Fitzsimons, the Green politician and activist who died last night, exemplified the environmentalists’ mantra of thinking globally and acting locally.
Xero puts its best (carbon) footprint forward
5 Mar 2020
New Zealand accounting software company Xero says it has completely offset its carbon footprint for the past financial year.
Climate not big election issue, says National
2 Mar 2020
Climate change should be less of an election issue this year than it was last time round, thanks to cross-party agreement on the zero-carbon act, says National Party climate spokesperson Scott Simpson.
We need to know changes to ETS, say foresters
28 Feb 2020
Forest owners – who yesterday called for a $200-a-tonne carbon tax on the burning of coal – say changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme should be signalled in the May Budget.
Forest owners want tax on burning of coal
27 Feb 2020
Forest owners are calling for a $200-a-tonne tax on the burning of coal and the implementation of the Government’s promised “wood-first” policy.
Tourism operators ill-informed, says report
27 Feb 2020
Parts of the tourism industry are so ill-informed about what climate change could do to New Zealand that they think the sector could actually benefit from it, a new report says.
Pricey carbon could push up prices at the pump
26 Feb 2020
Carbon prices of $50 a tonne – the figure the Government is putting forward as the new price cap – could put the price of diesel up 13c a litre and petrol up 7c a litre.
NZ risks missing biofuels chance, says industry
25 Feb 2020
New Zealand risks missing the chance to use biofuels to develop fuel independence and avoid buying costly international carbon credits, officials are being told.
Air NZ joins space agency in climate watch
25 Feb 2020
Air New Zealand is working with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration to monitor climate change in New Zealand.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
24 Feb 2020
Auckland Council’s audit and risk committee meets today and says climate change mitigation and adaption continue to be top risks for the council, leading to potential environmental degradation, economic inequality, social vulnerability and financial and reputational damage.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
20 Feb 2020
Parliament’s Environment Committee is discussing changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme today, as well as the annual reports of the Environmental Protection Authority and Predator Free 2050.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
19 Feb 2020
Applications for the Government’s Low-Emission Vehicles Contestable Fund open today, with secure parking for electric bikes eligible for the first time.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
18 Feb 2020
Greater Wellington Regional Council’s environment committee meets today to set environmental priorities.
Climate change low on Nats' question list
17 Feb 2020
Fewer than five per cent of the written questions to Government ministers lodged this year are about climate change.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
17 Feb 2020
Cambridge University economist Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta will give a public talk in Wellington tomorrow on the economics of biodiversity (5.30pm-7pm, Lecture Theatre 1, Rutherford House, 23 Lambton Quay).
Leaders (well, some of them) are talking climate change
14 Feb 2020
Climate change was on the lips of the leaders of two of the five parties in Parliament when it resumed this week.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
14 Feb 2020
Submissions close today on the Urban Development Bill, allowing what the Government calls better co-ordination of land, infrastructure and public assets in complex urban development projects.
Climate crisis looms as major election issue
13 Feb 2020
Climate change will be a major factor for more than a quarter of voters in this year’s general election, a new poll suggests.
We must have certainty with ETS, says Ballance
11 Feb 2020
Investment in emissions-cutting new technology like hydrogen could be jeopardised by uncertainty over the Emissions Trading Scheme, fertiliser manufacturer Ballance Agri-Nutrients says.
Government pumps $14m into forest water study
11 Feb 2020
A $14 million Government-funded project is under way to figure out how climate change will affect the amount of water and nutrients flowing through New Zealand forests.
Climate-risk reports critical, politicians hear
10 Feb 2020
Directors of large companies, Crown entities and any organisation participating in the Emissions Trading Scheme should have to provide an annual signed and audited statement of climate risk, Parliament is being told.
Why and what we should learn from bushfires
7 Feb 2020
Wildfires raging in Australia this summer show why New Zealand must include emissions from natural disasters in its climate reporting, says an expert on environmental accounting.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
7 Feb 2020
Today, submissions close on the Land Transport (Rail) Legislation Bill, allowing the rail network to be funded from the National Land Transport Fund.
AI to monitor deforestation
5 Feb 2020
Artificial intelligence is being used to measure forest – and carbon – loss in New Zealand.
Timber buildings can slow climate change
5 Feb 2020
European and US scientists have a root-and-branch answer to the challenge of tomorrow’s cities: switch to wood construct timber buildings and reduce the risk of even more devastating global temperature rise.
Give us a choice, foresters tell Parliament
4 Feb 2020
The owners of forests already in the Emissions Trading Scheme should be able to choose whether to switch to a new form of carbon accounting, MPs have heard.
Expert warns against offshore credits sprees
3 Feb 2020
New Zealand should be buying offshore carbon credits every year instead of going on a buying spree when its carbon bill falls due, says an expert on international carbon policy and markets.
NICK SMITH: How National's ETS did the job
31 Jan 2020
National MP and former climate minister Nick Smith says his Emissions Trading Scheme has seen New Zealand out-perform Australia on emissions reduction.
Forests will swallow small-town jobs, MPs hear
31 Jan 2020
Rural towns like Moerewa face losing hundreds of jobs if the Government doesn’t rein in the conversion of farms to carbon forests, MPs have been told.
Fonterra plant dumps coal for wood pellets
31 Jan 2020
Fonterra’s Te Awamutu milk-processing plant is going coal-free.
Farms must go back to the future, says minister
30 Jan 2020
Farmers will have to move away from intensive, specialised farming as climate change bites, the agriculture minister says.
Wise group slams 'bizarre' RMA emissions rule
30 Jan 2020
Parliament is being urged to change the “bizarre and dangerous” law banning local councils from considering greenhouse gas emissions when granting planning consents.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ...
30 Jan 2020
Some of the heavyweights of the agricultural industry appear before Parliament’s environment select committee today to talk about the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Govt consulting on Pacific Resilience Facility
Fri 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 slammed for weakening methane target
Mon 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.
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
Tue 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.
Minister not concerned about potential economic impacts of ruling out offshore mitigation
Thu 11 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | Climate Change Minister Simon Watts isn’t worried that ruling out using offshore mitigation is effectively reneging from the Paris Agreement with potential to damage New Zealand’s economy and access to export markets.
Battery subsidy scheme set for 'urgent' overhaul as costs run out of control
Tue 16 Dec 2025
Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen has announced big changes to the government's battery subsidy scheme amid claims most of its $2.3 billion budget has been spent in just six months.
Is Govt rushing through changes to climate framework to avoid litigation?
Thu 11 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment says the Government’s motivation for proposed changes to the country’s climate framework law are unclear: “The only reason I can think of is one grounded in potential litigation risk.”
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.
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.
$235 billion worth of NZ buildings exposed to flooding
30 Oct 2025
More than 750,000 New Zealanders live in locations exposed to one-in-100-year floods, according to a nationwide study which shows escalating flood risk.
India at COP30: A mismatch between grandstanding and climate action
Thu 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
Thu 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.
Australian Government wants EV, PHEV owners to start sending power to the grid
Mon 15 Dec 2025
The newly announced Vehicle-Grid Network is part of a plan to establish Australia as a leader in vehicle-to-grid technology.
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.
COP30 microcosm of difficult geopolitics, says Vanuatu's Climate Minister
Mon 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.
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.
Oil and gas majors would create $78bn more value by stopping exploration
Thu 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.
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.”
Analysis: Why COP30’s ‘tripling adaptation finance’ target is less ambitious than it seems
5 Dec 2025
One of the headline outcomes to emerge from COP30 was a new target to “at least triple” finance for climate adaptation in developing countries by 2035.
NZ ‘clearly’ breaching international law on climate – Vanuatu Climate Change Minister
Fri 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.
TotalEnergies loses in Paris court, marking a turning point for fossil fuel truth-in-advertising
5 Nov 2025
TotalEnergies was found to have misled consumers about its role in the energy transition.
Tribunal warns govt geothermal strategy risks Treaty breach
2 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | The government's geothermal development strategy risks breaching the Treaty of Waitangi, according to a report from the Waitangi Tribunal released last week.
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.
Shell facing first UK legal claim over climate impacts of fossil fuels
Fri 12 Dec 2025
Victims of a deadly typhoon in the Philippines have filed a legal claim against oil and gas company Shell in the UK courts, seeking compensation for what they say is the company's role in making the storm more severe.
NZ fails to back ‘roadmap’ to phase out fossil fuels at COP
24 Nov 2025
By Liz Kivi | Eighty-six countries including Australia, the UK, Germany, and Ireland backed a proposal at COP30 for national plans on how to quit oil, gas and coal – but New Zealand wasn’t one of them.
Media round-up
Fri 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'.
NZ could become ‘dumping ground’ for dirty vehicles: Commissioner
Tue 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.
The deep ocean is fixing carbon in ways no one expected
Tue 16 Dec 2025
A new study reveals that unexpected microbes are quietly fixing carbon in the dark depths of the ocean.
‘A shift no country can ignore’: where global emissions stand, 10 years after the Paris climate agreement
Tue 16 Dec 2025
The watershed summit in 2015 was far from perfect, but its impact so far has been significant and measurable.
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.
Govt green lights rural recycling scheme
4 Dec 2025
The Government has approved new regulations to bring rural waste schemes under one unified framework.
Weak carbon policy misses ‘exponential’ NZ growth opportunity: KiC
Mon 15 Dec 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Ambitious climate change policy is a route to a faster-growing New Zealand economy because of the potential for “exponential” growth in decarbonising technologies,” says KiwisinClimate, a global lobby group of New Zealanders working on climate change policy.
Shipping movements disrupted as climate change protesters block coal ships
2 Dec 2025
NSW police have arrested 141 people who attempted to block the shipping channel in Newcastle Harbour during Rising Tide protests, which began on Thursday.
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.
NZ could lose nearly all glaciers this century without stronger climate action
Tue 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.
More than $2m up for grabs for low-emissions farming innovation
10 Dec 2025
The Ag Emissions Centre and AgriZeroNZ yesterday opened their 2026 innovation investment round.
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.
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.
Study provides a step-change in understanding NZ’s groundwater
28 Nov 2025
Media release | Earth Sciences New Zealand has developed a world-first National Groundwater Age Map and a powerful suite of tools to support the sustainable management of our hidden groundwater resources, from national through to local scales.
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.
Australian market operator slashes wind farm predictions amid falling costs for solar and batteries
Thu 11 Dec 2025
The body that runs Australia's biggest power market has scaled back its plans for high-voltage power lines and wind farms to meet the country's green energy targets.
