Topics tagged with 'Greenhouse Effect'
Climate change much deadlier than cancer in some places, UNDP data shows
7 Nov 2022
Media release: UN News | The impact of climate change on health if carbon emissions remain high, could be up to twice as deadly as cancer in some parts of the world, according to new data released on Friday by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Climate Impact Lab.
Best by the rest...
4 Nov 2022
In our weekly round-up of the best climate coverage in local media: Climate Change Minister James Shaw blames court delay for inaction on tougher climate pledge; could fermentation replace conventional farming to reduce NZ's emissions? and journalist Marc Daalder argues we shouldn't give up on limiting global heating to 1.5C.
COP27: What have global leaders done on climate change in 2022?
4 Nov 2022
Last November global leaders met at the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow to agree next steps to tackle climate change. But climate experts have told the BBC that progress in 2022 has been slow - with governments around the world distracted by global energy and financial crises.
Australia’s carbon report card smeared in red ink as climate action goes backwards
4 Nov 2022
A global report card has marked Australia’s climate action with swathes of red ink, saying the country has not only increased fossil fuel subsidies but gone backwards on climate-risk disclosure policies.
Environmental ruling hits Europe’s largest carbon sequestration scheme
4 Nov 2022
The Netherlands’ highest administrative court yesterday ruled that construction projects will in future have to take into account the amount of nitrogen they emit.
Global pledges to remove greenhouse gas emissions to reach net zero unrealistic: new report
3 Nov 2022
A new University of Melbourne study has calculated countries would collectively need 1.2 billion hectares of land to meet their Paris Agreement goals.
Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average
3 Nov 2022
Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 years – the highest of any continent in the world.
Torres Strait demands climate compensation but government wont commit ahead of COP27
3 Nov 2022
Australia will face an "inevitable" influx of climate change refugees, the United Nations' (UN) first special rapporteur for human rights and climate change says.
Whanganui Awa’s legal personhood inspires scientists' call for recognition of rights of the Ocean
2 Nov 2022
Scientists arguing for the Ocean to be recognised as living being with intrinsic legal rights have cited the precedent of the Whanganui Awa in a recently published scientific article.
Māori youth activists fundraising for UN climate conference
1 Nov 2022
Two young Māori climate change activists are raising money to attend COP27 in Egypt, which starts this week.
Progress on methane emissions by energy companies, but numbers still don’t add up: UNEP
1 Nov 2022
Slashing emissions of methane is the single fastest way to tackle climate change in the short term, says UNEP, as the greenhouse gas remains in the atmosphere for far fewer years than carbon dioxide.
African scientists call for nature-based solution to climate crisis
1 Nov 2022
Harnessing Africa's vast natural resources, including tropical forests, coastal mangroves and peatlands, offers a cheaper and sustainable pathway to a greener and resilient future for the continent, scientists said on Monday.
Why climate change matters for pandemic preparedness
31 Oct 2022
Numerous studies over more than two decades have demonstrated a robust relationship between climate and the dynamics of human diseases, such as cholera, malaria and dengue. Changes in climate, including both long-term warming trends and short-term climate variability, might affect patterns of disease.
96% of humans feel global warming: study
31 Oct 2022
Whether they realized it or not, some 7.6 billion people - 96 percent of humanity - felt global warming's impact on temperatures over the last 12 months, researchers have said.
Greenhouse gases reach a new record
28 Oct 2022
The three main greenhouse gases hit record high levels in the atmosphere last year, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday, calling it an "ominous" sign as war in Ukraine, rising costs of food and fuel, and other worries have elbowed in on longtime concerns about global warming in recent months.
Analysis: Africa’s unreported extreme weather in 2022 and climate change
28 Oct 2022
From deadly floods in Nigeria to devastating drought in Somalia, Africa has faced a run of severe – and sometimes unprecedented – extreme weather events since the start of 2022.
Here's how to make rich countries pay for their climate impact: Mia Motley
28 Oct 2022
Today, the front line of the climate crisis lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, where 40% of the world lives. This belt around the equator is where temperatures will reach the most intolerable, and sea levels will rise the most. It’s also home to those who have contributed the least to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
UK’s critical infrastructure deemed vulnerable to ‘cascading risks’ from climate change
28 Oct 2022
Urgent action is needed to mitigate the "cascading risks" facing the UK's critical national infrastructure (CNI), according to a new report.
One in 10 Kiwi kids face double threat of high climate risk and poverty
27 Oct 2022
Media Release - Almost 110,000 children - 10% of Aotearoa New Zealand’s child population - are living with the dual impacts of poverty and high climate risk, according to a new report by Save the Children.
Where you live affects your view of climate crisis: survey
26 Oct 2022
A new survey shows where you live could affect your view of the climate crisis, with Wellington City dwellers more likely to be worried about climate change’s local impacts than people living in Dunedin, Hamilton, or Tauranga.
Climate change threatens emperor penguins with extinction: US officials
26 Oct 2022
It is the only animal that dares to breed during the Antarctic winter. It endures gale-force winds and freezing temperatures to lay and protect a single egg.
Heatwaves to impact almost every child on Earth by 2050: UNICEF Report
26 Oct 2022
Media Release - Heatwaves have become an unavoidable health hazard for many nations, but new data indicates that they are set to affect virtually every child on earth by 2050, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, warned on Tuesday.
Weekend of protests in Europe, from energy to Iran
25 Oct 2022
Thousands of protesters gathered across Europe over the weekend to protest over energy prices and climate — and also to show solidarity with antigovernment protesters in Iran.
New fossil fuels ‘incompatible’ with 1.5C goal, comprehensive analysis finds
25 Oct 2022
There is a “large consensus” across all published studies that developing new oil and gas fields is “incompatible” with the 1.5C target, a new report says.
GDP down, emissions up
21 Oct 2022
Decoupling GDP growth and greenhouse gas emissions is the holy grail of climate economists but nobody is going to be celebrating just released figures from Stats NZ, which show the two metrics heading in opposite directions.
$120 million up for grabs to reduce methane emissions
21 Oct 2022
The Ministry for the Environment is offering $120 million over two years for solutions to reduce emissions from organic waste, 94% of which are from biogenic methane.
Best by the rest...
21 Oct 2022
In our weekly round-up of the best local climate coverage: Where is all the funding for climate change agri-tech? Mount Ruapehu goes into voluntary administration as climate change takes its toll; and pacific activists team up ahead of COP27.
Insurers withdraw from fossil fuel projects amid climate change fears
21 Oct 2022
BERLIN (AP) — Insurance companies that have long said they’ll cover anything, at the right price, are increasingly ruling out fossil fuel projects because of climate change — to cheers from environmental campaigners.
Most diseases worsened by climate change, new research reveals. Here’s what we can do about it
21 Oct 2022
The climate crisis will worsen most diseases, experts have warned - and could catalyse the next deadly pandemic
Climate outcomes measurable - unlike most of $2.6 billion environmental spend
20 Oct 2022
Climate change is the only part of the government’s $2.6 billion environmental spend where there is a clear plan and measurable outcomes, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton, says in a new report.
Climate change puts a billion children at 'extremely high risk'
20 Oct 2022
Some one billion children are at "extremely high risk" due to climate change harms, a rights group warned on Wednesday, adding that youths' living standards failed to improve in the last decade.
People less concerned about climate change than before: survey
20 Oct 2022
Climate change is a pressing concern for the health of the planet. However, people worldwide appear to have become less concerned about its effect.
The tipping points of climate change: how will our world change?
20 Oct 2022
The IPCC has identified several so-called ‘tipping points of climate change’, critical thresholds in a system that, if exceeded, can lead to irreversible consequences. But when exactly will we reach them, who will bear the brunt, and, most importantly, is there a way to avoid it?
Tracing anthropogenically emitted carbon dioxide into the ocean
19 Oct 2022
Researchers labeled anthropogenically emitted carbon and tracked it with an ocean circulation model to determine whether it winds up in the sky or the sea.
As climate risks intensify in Brazil, election rivals offer few solutions
19 Oct 2022
“People’s post-traumatic stress levels are extremely high,” says Rafaela Facchetti, a researcher at Brazil’s National School of Public Health, or ENSP.
Hydrofluorocarbons import cap lowered
18 Oct 2022
The Environmental Protection Authority has lowered import limits for hydrofluorocarbons, a group of greenhouse gases used in heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration.
Climate crisis could increase African country debts by $1 trillion
18 Oct 2022
Sub-Saharan African countries will have to take on almost $1 trillion in debt over the next 10 years unless wealthy countries provide adequate finance to address the climate crisis, according to a new report published on Monday, October 17, 2022, by Debt Justice and Climate Action Network International.
Climate anxiety is spreading all over the planet
18 Oct 2022
If you’re feeling anxious about climate change, the common wisdom goes, there’s an antidote: Take action. Maybe you can alleviate your worries by doing something positive, like going to a protest, becoming an advocate for mass transit, or trying to get an environmental champion elected.
Future emissions from ‘country of permafrost’ potentially devastating
18 Oct 2022
By the end of this century, permafrost in the rapidly warming Arctic will likely emit as much carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as a large industrial nation, and potentially more than the U.S. has emitted since the start of the industrial revolution.
World Bank’s president survives climate gaff, but its fossil fuel policy may not
17 Oct 2022
WASHINGTON — David Malpass' job as president of the World Bank appears safe despite calls for his ouster by climate advocates, but the recent controversy over his climate views may have helped ram through changes to help clean energy despite his resistance.
Pakistan suffered climate-induced losses worth $29bn in past three decades: World Bank
17 Oct 2022
Climate-related disasters in Pakistan have resulted in economic losses of $29 billion over the past thirty years, according to a report by the World Bank.
CSIRO abruptly scraps globally recognised climate forecast programme
17 Oct 2022
Australia’s premier science organisation abruptly scrapped a fully-funded, globally recognised programme to predict the climate in coming years without consulting an advisory panel that had praised its “good progress” only weeks earlier.
Mangrove carbon sinks under threat from sea level rise
14 Oct 2022
Whether Aotearoa New Zealand’s wetlands can survive the threat of inevitable sea-level rise is a question NIWA scientists are asking, as they start a new monitoring project looking at Bay of Plenty estuaries.
‘We’re on our own.’ How people with disabilities are left out of climate planning
14 Oct 2022
When the inevitable hurricanes threaten New Orleans, it’s hard for India Scott to figure where to go. In the city where she was born and raised, she’s stayed in hotels, relief shelters and, during Hurricane Katrina, in the famously overcrowded Superdome.
"Sobering" report highlights climate impacts on NZ's marine environment
13 Oct 2022
A “sobering” new report highlighting marine heatwaves, acidifying oceans, sea level rise, and damaging storms, is a warning to reduce emissions faster, according to experts.
Climate and ESG important to tech sector employees
13 Oct 2022
New research reveals that 59% of tech sector candidates looking for new work say a company’s commitment to environmental sustainability influences their decision to accept a job offer.
Greenland's culture shifts as Arctic heats up
13 Oct 2022
Icebergs bigger than city blocks loom through the mist as Kaleeraq Mathaeussen reels in halibut from the frigid waters one by one.
Import limits reduced for potent greenhouse gases
12 Oct 2022
Media Release: Environmental Protection Authority | The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has lowered import limits for hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a group of harmful greenhouse gases used in heat pumps, air conditioning and refrigeration.
50% of Earth’s coral reefs face climate change threat by 2035
12 Oct 2022
Under a worst-case scenario, half of coral reef ecosystems worldwide will permanently face unsuitable conditions in just over a dozen years, if climate change continues unabated. That is one of the findings from new research published on October 11, in PLOS Biology by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers. Unsuitable conditions will likely lead to the corals dying off and other marine life will struggle to survive due to disruptions in the food chain.
Climate change and deforestation may drive tree-dwelling primates to the ground, large-scale study shows
11 Oct 2022
A large-scale study of 47 species of monkeys and lemurs has found that climate change and deforestation are driving these tree-dwelling animals to the ground, where they are at higher risk due to lack of preferred food and shelter, and may experience more negative interaction with humans and domestic animals.
NZ art focussing on climate on display at Beijing Biennale
Thu 12 Feb 2026
An artist responding to the consequences of climate disruption is the first New Zealander in six years to feature at the prestigious Beijing Art Biennale.
Carbon market rallies but auction floor still out of reach
Fri 13 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | The carbon market has rallied, with secondary market prices up more than 25% in the past two weeks, although current prices in the mid-$40s are still far below this year’s $71 auction floor, with the first auction of 2026 less than three weeks away.
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.
Why Trump might be onboard with a UN carbon-offset programme for airlines
Thu 12 Feb 2026
The president’s team has backed the rollout of an initiative that calls for the use of sustainable aviation fuel and carbon credits, even as Trump has pulled back from other international emissions-reduction efforts.
World fight against invasive species comes to Auckland
Tue 10 Feb 2026
Media release: University of Auckland | From countering invasive pink salmon in Norway to controlling feral cats in the Cayman Islands, knowledge on eradicating invasive species will be shared by international experts in New Zealand.
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.
EU weighing options to support industry in carbon market overhaul
Mon 9 Feb 2026
The European Commission is looking at various ways to support industries in an upcoming overhaul of the EU carbon market to prevent them moving to areas with lower pollution standards, the head of the Commission’s climate department said late on Wednesday.
Point of no return: a hellish ‘hothouse Earth’ getting closer, scientists say
Fri 13 Feb 2026
The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said.
Minister’s letters: Mildly positive or just virtue signalling?
5 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | The carbon market was buoyed slightly yesterday, after letters between the Government and the Climate Change Commission were proactively released.
NZ still lacking coherent energy strategy
Fri 13 Feb 2026
By Rod Carr | COMMENT: The government’s levy-funded foreign gas proposal for an LNG terminal shows New Zealand’s politicians being outmanoeuvred yet again by the multi-trillion dollar energy industry.
LNG: a rational choice compared to unpalatable alternatives
Tue 10 Feb 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | COMMENT: By deciding to underwrite the private construction of a liquefied natural gas import facility in Taranaki, the Government has made a rational choice in favour of energy security and affordability.
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.
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.
Lawyers seek answers on climate impacts of LNG import facility
Fri 13 Feb 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Lawyers for Climate Action has written to Climate Change and Energy Minister Simon Watts warning that the Government's plan for an LNG import terminal could be in conflict with New Zealand’s climate obligations and emissions reduction targets.
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.
Media round-up
Fri 13 Feb 2026
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: Senior UK ministers have asked their New Zealand counterparts to explain new climate policies, National’s LNG blunders are a warning ahead of election campaign, and what are the lessons New Zealand should take from another summer of weather disasters?
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.
'Damning' report challenges forestry’s role in Tairāwhiti as sector rejects conclusions
4 Feb 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New independent analysis commissioned by Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti challenges long-standing claims that industrial forestry underpins the Tairāwhiti economy.
LNG plan risks fossil fuel dependency: Environment Commissioner
Wed 11 Feb 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Importing liquefied natural gas risks creating a “new path dependency on fossil fuel” unless LNG is ring-fenced for use only in the electricity system and only during extended periods of hydro-electricity water shortages, says the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Simon Upton.
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.”
European Central Bank's green supervision grows teeth, but will banks avoid being bitten?
Fri 13 Feb 2026
After several years of issuing guidance and repeatedly calling on banks to take climate and environmental risk management seriously, the European Central Bank is moving from guidance and expectations to enforcement.
Kiwi startup takes on global plastic pollution
Thu 12 Feb 2026
A New Zealand startup is launching what it says is the world’s first plastic-free effervescent drink tablet, with the ambitious aim of eliminating bottled beverages to reduce global plastic pollution.
Govt missing opportunity to slash electricity prices, says expert
Wed 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.
Hydrogen emissions are ‘supercharging’ the warming impact of methane
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”.
Wales council to buy and demolish homes prone to flooding
4 Feb 2026
A row of homes in a village in south Wales is to be bought by a local authority and demolished as they can no longer be protected from flooding caused by the climate crisis.
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.
Green Member’s Bill aims to give whales legal ‘personhood’
Mon 9 Feb 2026
The Green Party wants to give whales legal rights, including the right to sue.
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.
Ministers celebrate fast-track milestone amid criticism
Tue 10 Feb 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | The government is marking the first anniversary of its fast-track approvals regime, saying it is helping “build New Zealand’s future”, despite continued criticism from environmental groups, opposition parties, and industry voices following several controversial project decisions.
Govt looks to Commission for ways to shore up carbon price
4 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | The Government has asked the Climate Change Commission to look at lower auction volumes and an increase in the auction floor price as options to revive the Emissions Trading Scheme, as carbon prices remain weak.
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.
Climate change linked to decline in southern right whale
Thu 12 Feb 2026
Scientists in Australia are warning southern right whales are showing signs of climate-related stress, just days after a Green Party Member’s Bill was introduced in New Zealand proposing legal personhood for whales.
Climate ambassador moves on
Fri 13 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | The Government is on the hunt for a new top climate diplomat, with previous climate ambassador Stu Horne moving on to a posting in Honolulu as New Zealand’s Consul General to Hawai’i.
Commentators slam Govt inaction in aftermath of climate change-fuelled storms
30 Jan 2026
By Liz Kivi | Climate action - or inaction - is shaping up to be an election issue, with multiple commentators drawing a line between the Coalition Government’s backsliding on climate targets and the deadly extreme weather events of the past week.
Major health risks linked to plastics emissions set to soar by 2040
28 Jan 2026
The adverse health consequences stemming from the global plastics system are projected to more than double by 2040, driven by greenhouse gases, air pollutants and toxic chemicals released throughout its lifecycle.
Greenpeace set to take UK Government to court over deep-sea mining licences
5 Feb 2026
Environmental NGO Greenpeace has kick-started a legal challenge against the UK Government’s decision to approve the transfer of two seabed exploration licences to a newly-formed mining company with US links.
Critical minerals talks with US questioned in Waitangi Tribunal climate inquiry
Mon 9 Feb 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand and the United States' negotiations over critical minerals have raised questions for the Waitangi Tribunal’s long-running inquiry into climate change.
January floods driven by tropical systems and La Niña conditions
Thu 12 Feb 2026
Record-breaking rainfall across parts of Aotearoa in January was fuelled by tropical moisture and persistent low-pressure systems, with some regions recording more than five times their normal monthly rainfall, Earth Sciences New Zealand says.
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.
NZ-UAE partnership boosts advanced tech
Mon 9 Feb 2026
Media release | A new Antarctic science partnership with a leading UAE university will grow New Zealand’s advanced engineering and modelling capability, supporting high-value jobs, encouraging economic growth, and enabling smarter climate risk management, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Dr Shane Reti says.
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.
China maximises battery recycling to shore up critical mineral supplies
Wed 11 Feb 2026
Beijing is bracing for a tsunami of spent EV batteries by taking steps to boost recycling – a strategy that could also cut its reliance on imports of clean energy minerals.
EU to ban destruction of unsold clothes and shoes
Thu 12 Feb 2026
The European Commission has adopted new measures that will require medium and large companies to stop discarding unsold clothing and footwear, in the bloc’s latest move to target textile waste.
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.
Argentina fires ravage pristine Patagonia forests, fueling criticism of Milei’s austerity
4 Feb 2026
The wildfires, among the worst to hit the drought-stricken Patagonia region in decades, have devastated more than 45,000 hectares (174 square miles) of Argentina’s forests in the last month and a half, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents and tourists.
Hydrogen plant to start construction
Tue 10 Feb 2026
Construction is set to start this month on Hiringa Energy’s long delayed green hydrogen project in South Taranaki, after years of consenting fights that culminated in the Court of Appeal rejecting Greenpeace’s challenge in late 2023.
