Topics tagged with 'Forestry'
It's our age, but we've lost control of the planet
10 Oct 2016
It’s becoming increasingly commonplace to suggest that humans now dominate the planet.
Opposition slams Government carbon credits plan
6 Oct 2016
New Zealand’s plans to buy its way out of emissions reductions run foul of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change, Opposition parties say.
NZ ratifies Paris Agreement
5 Oct 2016
New Zealand has ratified the Paris Agreement and the European Union is about to, pushing the global climate change treaty over the threshold to bring it into force.
Rising emissions mean NZ will miss Paris targets
29 Sep 2016
New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions are set to double between 1990 and 2030 – and even with a carbon price of $50 a tonne, we could still be short of our Paris Agreement pledge by 143 million tonnes.
Food supply fears spark China's global land grab
28 Sep 2016
China is protecting itself against future food supply problems caused by climate change by buying or leasing large tracts of land in Africa and South America, a leading UK climate scientist says.
PARIS PACT: Morganists say NZ must sell units
23 Sep 2016
The Government must cancel all surplus carbon units it’s sitting on in 2020 as part of ratifying the Paris Agreement, says the group that wrote the Climate Cheats report.
What we can do about threats to our food security and feed nine billion people
23 Sep 2016
Can we really feed nine billion people? That’s the estimated global population in the year 2050.
Dire climate impacts go unheeded
23 Sep 2016
The social and economic impacts of climate change have already begun to take their toll – but most people do not yet know this.
Gas emissions (the reported kind) take a dive
16 Sep 2016
New Zealand’s reported greenhouse gas emissions have fallen drastically.
Agriculture emissions continue to grow
16 Sep 2016
New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture continue to climb.
Trading scheme welcomes fewer units
16 Sep 2016
Just 4.6 million NZUs came into the Emissions Trading Scheme last year, new Government figures show.
Modified wood aims to save forests from the axe
15 Sep 2016
A hardwood substitute has been developed to effectively end the need to log native forests.
Logged forests could be wildlife refuges
13 Sep 2016
Even in degraded forests, wild animals can survive. Selectively logged forests in Borneo can still be home for the clouded leopard and the civet, the orangutan and the bearded pig.
Paris pact signing could be only weeks away
6 Sep 2016
New Zealand is likely to ratify the Paris Agreement in the next couple of months, the Government says.
Planet paying high price for palm oil profits
5 Sep 2016
Palm oil makes a big contribution to modern life as one of the most widely used substances in food, cooking, cosmetics, medicines and a range of chemicals. But the industry that produces it is seriously harming the planet.
Forestry up for Prince of Wales awards
31 Aug 2016
Sustainable forestry in New Zealand is being recognised with two new awards from the Prince of Wales.
How Paris Agreement could punish the economy
29 Aug 2016
New Zealand will face significant economic damage from the Paris Agreement if carbon stored in forests is not recognised, the Emissions Trading Scheme is not linked internationally, and agricultural emissions incur a carbon price, a new report shows.
Bennett rules out parties' two key climate points
18 Aug 2016
Carbon budgeting and a climate commission are not on the table for cross-party talks on climate change.
DIRTY DOZEN: Big firms who traded in cheap units
16 Aug 2016
Some of New Zealand’s largest carbon emitters, along with forestry companies and even iwi are among the organisations that used cheap EURs to meet their liabilities under the Emissions Trading Scheme, a new report shows.
Carbon-farming case lawyer under investigation
11 Aug 2016
A lawyer who advised a carbon-farming company that was later prosecuted by the Overseas Investment Office is under investigation over the affair.
Trees clear winner as carbon farmer cashes in
5 Aug 2016
Carbon credits have netted a dairy farmer more than he could have ever made from running livestock on his Taranaki hill country.
Businesses call for ETS policy certainty
4 Aug 2016
Calls for cross-party policy on climate change, and complaints about “continual and ad-hoc” changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme dominated comments on the first stage of the latest review of the scheme.
Industries fought to keep 1:2 carbon subsidy
2 Aug 2016
The waste, stationary energy, industrial processing and agricultural sectors mounted the biggest opposition to getting rid of the one-for-two carbon subsidy.
Industry slams failure of free-market forestry
1 Aug 2016
New Zealand’s experiment with free-market forestry has left it without the forests needed to combat climate change and supply the domestic market with wood, the industry says.
Pest-free state could help to control climate changes
26 Jul 2016
The Government’s mission to make New Zealand predator-free by 2050 could have a positive spin-off for the battle against a warming climate.
AGS forests will bank million tonnes of carbon
25 Jul 2016
Forests planted under the revived Afforestation Grant Scheme this year are expected to store 1.3 million tonnes of carbon.
Our forests key to the future, say scientists
22 Jul 2016
Heavy-emitting businesses could be buying more than $500 million worth of forestry credits a year by 2025, says the Crown Research Institute Scion.
Minister reports on second stage of ETS review
20 Jul 2016
Climate change minister Paula Bennett has reported to her colleagues on the second stage of the Emissions Trading Scheme review.
Britain could warm by 4deg this century
19 Jul 2016
Scientific advisers warn that, by 2100, temperatures in Britain could rise by twice as much as the internationally agreed limit set at the Paris climate conference.
Humans leave greater green fingerprints
19 Jul 2016
Evidence of increased greening of the northern hemisphere over the past half-century points to the dominant effect human-induced greenhouse gases have on climate.
Can Nauru bounce back from mining boom and bust?
18 Jul 2016
When most of us hear of Nauru we tend to think of immigration detention, or perhaps of the environmentally ruinous legacy of the island nation’s ill-fated phosphate mining boom.
ETS REVIEW: Plenty are talking about agriculture
13 Jul 2016
The Government might have wanted agriculture kept out of the current review of the Emissions Trading Scheme, but that hasn’t stopped scores of people, ranging from Air New Zealand to the country’s Catholic bishops, talking about it anyway.
Forester urges Govt to remove carbon market risks
12 Jul 2016
New Zealand will not get forestry investment on the scale needed to tackle climate change unless it cuts risk associated with the carbon market, says a company that planted 6500 hectares of carbon forests in the heyday of the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Disturbing forests damages natural diversity
12 Jul 2016
By TIM RADFORD | It is not enough just to conserve forest. It may be just as important not to disturb any of it.
Drying lands increase peat bog fire hazard
11 Jul 2016
Scientists in Canada have confirmed once again an unexpected hazard in the world of climate change: the subterranean fire.
Renewable jet fuel could be growing on gum trees
11 Jul 2016
Australia’s economy might have ridden on the sheep’s back, but the colonies’ first export was actually eucalyptus oil.
Reducing water pollution with microbes and wood chips
11 Jul 2016
New Zealand scientists have played an important part in international efforts to develop systems that clean water flowing from farm tile drains.
CLIMATE CRUNCH: Is the political ice beginning to melt?
7 Jul 2016
Cross-party political agreement on climate change action might have come a step closer.
Greens slam Government for climate failures
6 Jul 2016
The Government is failing to prepare New Zealand for the impacts of climate change – and has slashed millions of dollars of funding for domestic policy advice on the issue, the Green Party says.
BURNING ISSUE: One fire service way to go, say Greens
6 Jul 2016
Amalgamation of the country’s two fire services should help them to prepare for the impacts of climate change – more fires and floods, says Green Party environment spokesperson Eugenie Sage.
Global bond market mobilises for climate change
5 Jul 2016
Nearly $NZ100 billion has been invested in climate bonds, a new global report says.
ETS changes you might not know about ...
4 Jul 2016
The public attention might be on the Government’s review of the Emissions Trading Scheme. But behind the headlines other, quiet, changes are being made.
Paris targets aren’t enough, but we can close the gap
1 Jul 2016
The Paris climate agreement saw countries pledge to limit global warming to well below 2degC, and to aim to keep it within 1.5deg. The problem is that countries' current emissions targets are not enough to meet these goals.
Bill and I haven't talked sea level, admits Bennett
30 Jun 2016
Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett says she has not asked Finance Minister Bill English to set up a working group to assess the economic impacts of rising sea levels, as recommended by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.
California trees have billion-dollar street value
27 Jun 2016
Researchers calculate the huge environmental and economic benefits to taxpayers of the trees that line many streets in California’s cities and suburbs.
How science can strengthen endangered plants
27 Jun 2016
As the human population swells – and in the face of a changing and unpredictable climate – the demand for natural resources increases. This leads to distressing rates of deforestation to prepare land for agriculture, medicinal and forestry products. Related to this is an alarming reduction in species worldwide.
Officials tell why we need a carbon price floor
23 Jun 2016
A carbon price floor would be challenging but would give businesses certainty and guarantee foresters a price that made planting trees worthwhile, officials told the Government.
Experts offer help to victims of solar charge
22 Jun 2016
Greenpeace has pooled its renewable energy and legal experts to create a solar hot desk to help people affected by New Zealand’s first charge for using solar energy.
Fonterra nod pleases bioenergy industry
20 Jun 2016
The approval for Fonterra to build a new milk-drying plant that will be partially fuelled by wood is a step forward for the diary giant, says the Bioenergy Association.
Portal holds our plantation forest facts
20 Jun 2016
Information about the environmental and social performance of New Zealand’s plantation forests – including their ability to sequester carbon from the atmosphere – is now available online.
Farm-level emissions cuts possible, but almost everything stands in the way
Thu 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
Today 12:30pm
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
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.
Climate law change spanner in the works for Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry
Today 12:30pm
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.
Seven quiet wins for climate and nature in 2025
Today 12:30pm
This year's environmental backdrop is familiar: emissions are rising and nature is continuing to decline. But there have nevertheless been bright spots in 2025.
Govt unveils plans for carbon storage regulations – and ETS rewards
Thu 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
Thu 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
Wed 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
Thu 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
Today 12:30pm
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
Today 12:30pm
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
Wed 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
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.
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.
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
Wed 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
Today 12:30pm
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
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.
Offshore windfarms enhance function of coastal waters and diversity of aquatic life
Today 12:30pm
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
Tue 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?
Thu 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
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.
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
Today 12:30pm
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'.
