Topics tagged with 'Greenhouse Effect'
How is the jet stream connected to simultaneous heat waves across the globe?
1 Aug 2022
The deadly heat waves that have fueled blazes and caused transport disruptions in Europe, the U.S. and China this month have one thing in common: a peculiar shape in the jet stream dubbed “wavenumber 5.”
Greece is scorching in a heat wave and wildfires, yet it's returning to planet-baking coal
1 Aug 2022
Dimitris Mitsaris opens his garage door and the smell of fermenting grapes emerges, as the first morning light bounces off dozens of steel tanks. Mitsaris and his family live here, in Agios Panteleimonas, a mountainous village of just 800 residents in northern Greece, and have made their home into a small winery. "I don't even have electricity here yet," Mitsaris says with a laugh.
Nepal’s citizen scientists track climate change
1 Aug 2022
The village of Phorste below Mt Everest has the highest number of high altitude guides who have died climbing in the Himalaya, but its Sherpas inhabitants are now being recruited to also become citizens scientists.
Tourism expert calls to scrutinise cruise ships’ emissions
29 Jul 2022
By Liz Kivi | A sustainable tourism expert wants greater scrutiny around cruise travel, including the impacts of mega cruise ships and their carbon emissions, ahead of the vessels’ return to New Zealand waters in October.
‘Our priority is not to save the planet’: rainforest auctioned for oil drilling
28 Jul 2022
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has announced that it will auction off vast quantities of critical tropical peatlands and rainforests for oil and gas drilling, just months after promising to preserve them at the COP26 climate conference.
The world’s top 10 “carbon bombs” and what they mean for climate change
28 Jul 2022
Much has been done by countless people, organizations, businesses and leaders to stave off the effects of climate change. Over decades, concerned individuals have changed their diets, switched to renewable energy, taken organized action and invested money in a desperate bid to save future generations from the hardships of living in a world heated beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Pakistan's largest city battered by torrential rain as climate crisis makes weather more unpredictable
26 Jul 2022
Public services in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, have been suspended and businesses are being urged to close, as torrential rains cause deadly flash flooding and infrastructure damage, leaving at least 15 dead since Saturday.
Climate change will make it harder for world’s poorest to migrate, study says
26 Jul 2022
Climate change will make it harder for the world’s poorest people to migrate – leaving them “extremely vulnerable” to continued impacts and increased poverty, new research finds.
Battered by climate change, Latin America must brace for worse
25 Jul 2022
Floods, heat waves and the longest drought in 1,000 years: Latin America is grappling with devastating climate change impacts that will only get worse, a World Meteorological Organization report warned Friday.
The amount of Greenland ice that melted last weekend could cover West Virginia in a foot of water
22 Jul 2022
The water off the coast of northwest Greenland is a glass-like calm, but the puddles accumulating on the region's icebergs are a sign that a transformation is underway higher on the ice sheet.
Most countries 'woefully unprepared' for changing climate: analysis
22 Jul 2022
Major economies such as India, Brazil and Russia face "cascading" crises driven by climate change such as food insecurity, energy shortages and civil unrest, an industry analysis warned Thursday.
Why is it so hard to get people to care about climate change? A neuroscientist and a psychologist shed light
22 Jul 2022
Portugal, France, Spain and Greece are on fire - and, recently, so was the UK. Record 40C heat fuelled dozens of blazes around the country, and saw the busiest day for London's firefighters since the Second World War.
Congo peat swamps store three years of global carbon emissions – imminent oil drilling could release it
22 Jul 2022
Democratic Republic of the Congo’s government is preparing to auction off a series of licenses to drill for oil in the Congo basin. This threatens to damage around 11 million hectares of the world’s second largest rainforest.
First six months of 2022 second warmest on record
21 Jul 2022
While an unprecedented heat wave wreaks havoc in Europe, and temperatures reach all-time highs in the U.S., New Zealand’s weather also shows clear evidence of global heating, according to NIWA’s latest figures.
UK's hottest day sparks culture war
21 Jul 2022
“Calm down, it’s just a sunny day.” That was the refrain from a small but powerful section of the British establishment this week, as temperatures in the U.K.—where summer highs rarely reach 30°C —topped 40°C for the first time in recorded history.
Australia's environment in 'shocking' decline, report finds
21 Jul 2022
Australia's environment is in a shocking state and faces further decline from amplifying threats, according to an anticipated report.
The legacy of Europe’s heat waves will be more air conditioning. That’s a problem.
21 Jul 2022
Europe is sweltering in record-breaking temperatures this week, and across the continent, people are largely trying to cope without air conditioning.
Germany rejects delaying climate action
20 Jul 2022
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has rejected the notion of cutting back on climate change targets despite the energy and food security crisis, speaking at the end of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin on Tuesday.
Wildfires in Spain, Morocco produce record-breaking carbon emissions
20 Jul 2022
Wildfires in Spain and Morocco have produced more carbon emissions in June and July this year than in the same period of any year since 2003, the European Union's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said.
Are cities ready for extreme heat?
19 Jul 2022
The first chapter of Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future takes my breath away. Not just because I can almost feel the heat and humidity dripping off the pages, but because I know that—although the story is fictional—similar scenes are already playing out in real life.
How sizzling temperatures drive up food prices
19 Jul 2022
Vicious heat waves are sweeping parts of the globe this week, along with the dangers that come with blazing-hot temperatures: wildfires, dehydration, and even death. The hot weather could also push prices up for food, making inflation even worse.
Under pressure from climate change, Morocco's oases struggle to support life
19 Jul 2022
In the south of Morocco's High Atlas mountains is one of the few palm tree oases still inhabited in the country.
A hypothetical weather forecast for 2050 is coming true next week
18 Jul 2022
Two years ago, forecasters in the UK conducted an interesting thought experiment: What will our forecasts look like in 2050?
Fed up with net-zero climate goals, activists call for 'real zero'
18 Jul 2022
As alarm at the United Nations over climate change has grown dire in recent years, a slew of corporations have announced net-zero carbon emissions goals.
Nature is in crisis. A UN report says short-sighted economics is to blame
15 Jul 2022
When governments make decisions, economic considerations often trump everything else — human well-being, social connections, the health of the environment. According to a new report from the United Nations, this imbalance is driving the global biodiversity crisis and the human suffering associated with it.
Millions more at risk from dangerous summer temperatures if climate goals aren't met
15 Jul 2022
Health-threatening heatwaves will become more intense due to climate change, putting millions more people at risk from dangerous summer temperatures, new research has revealed.
EU green chief calls for day of memorial for climate victims
15 Jul 2022
Europe should create a day of memorial for the victims of climate change, the EU's Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans said Thursday, marking the anniversary of floods that killed more than 220 people mostly in Germany and Belgium.
Climate change: $2tr for weapons versus $100bn to save the planet
15 Jul 2022
BY Murad Qureshi | During late April and early May, South Asia experienced the terrible effects of global warming. Temperatures reached almost 50°C in some cities in the region. These high temperatures came alongside dangerous flooding in northeast India and in Bangladesh, as the rivers burst their banks, with flash floods taking place in places such as Sunamganj in Sylhet, Bangladesh.
$2.1 million up for grabs for greenhouse gas inventory research
14 Jul 2022
The Ministry of Primary Industries’ annual round of funding for research that will help improve its agricultural, forestry and land-use inventory opens today.
Climate change amplifies the risk of conflict, study from Africa shows
14 Jul 2022
In October 2021, the city of Guriel in Somalia’s Galguduud region became the epicenter of fierce fighting between the national army and a paramilitary group that left more than 100 people dead and displaced another 100,000.
Rich nations caused climate harm to poorer ones, study says
13 Jul 2022
Scientists, officials and activists have long called out the inequity in national histories on greenhouse gas emissions with rich nations benefiting and poor ones hurting from global warming, and now a study published Tuesday aims to calculate just how much economic impact large emitters have caused to other nations.
As temperatures rise, farms are sprouting in Alaska
13 Jul 2022
Even as farms decline across the US, a longer growing season is bringing food security to a state that has long relied on sustenance from afar.
Pacific Island Forum backs Vanuatu’s campaign for World Court climate case
12 Jul 2022
Foreign ministers attending the Pacific Island Forum in Fiji have endorsed Vanuatu’s call for a UN General Assembly resolution requesting the International Court of Justice hears a case on the responsibility of states to deal with climate change.
Seaweed restoration project to boost carbon absorption
12 Jul 2022
An environmental project has secured a funding boost to regenerate seaweed forests off Wellington’s coast.
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon hits record for first half of 2022
12 Jul 2022
Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest reached a record high for the first six months of the year, as an area five times the size of New York City was destroyed, preliminary government data showes.
Species extinction threatens the livelihoods of billions: new report
12 Jul 2022
With billions of people depending on wild flora and fauna for food, medicine, and energy, a million species are at risk of extinction due to the combined impacts of climate change, other forms of pollution, overexploitation, and deforestation, warns a new report backed by the United Nations.
Scientists puzzled by soaring global methane levels
12 Jul 2022
Methane concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere are soaring—and the exact causes of the "frightening" increase are puzzling scientists
How climate change is making extreme weather a regular occurrence
12 Jul 2022
Torrential rains in Japan, record-breaking heatwaves in Europe, and recurring droughts in the western US. For the second year in a row the start of summer in the northern hemisphere has been marked by extreme weather. To what extent is global warming to blame?
Best by the rest…
8 Jul 2022
In our weekly round-up of the best climate coverage in the local media: Offshore oil and gas exploration goes ahead despite bans; indigenous forests’ carbon sequestration superpowers; and is romanticising New Zealand’s colonial past hindering our climate response?
Waikato student wins scholarship to study Antarctic carbon release hotspots
7 Jul 2022
A Waikato student has won a $20,000 scholarship to study possible carbon dioxide release hotspots in the Southern Ocean.
Climate change forcing nature reserves to adapt, warns new report
7 Jul 2022
Projects to help wildlife adapt to habitats affected by climate change will become more commonplace, warned a new report.
No power, no fans, no AC: The villagers fighting to survive India’s deadly heatwaves
6 Jul 2022
Suman Shakya wants me to touch the concrete wall of her bedroom, where her one-year-old son lies soaked with sweat. It burns my hand as if it were a hot pan. “Now imagine sitting in front of a hot pan in this weather for as long as it takes to make rotis for the whole family,” she says.
Voices from Vanuatu: life on the climate crisis frontline
6 Jul 2022
Vanuatu is at the front line of the fight against climate change. This low-lying chain of 80 islands strung across the ocean, with a population of just under 300,000, is the world’s most at-risk country for natural disasters, as measured by the UN World Risk Report 2021.
Youth climate case moves to top tribunal in European Court
5 Jul 2022
The European Court of Human Rights said Thursday that a complaint against 33 countries filed by six young Portuguese climate activists will be examined by the tribunal’s top panel of judges, a move reflecting the case’s legal significance.
Deadly glacier collapse in Italy "linked directly to climate change"
5 Jul 2022
Italian prime minister Mario Draghi joined scientists in pointing to the climate emergency as the cause of a deadly glacier collapse in the Italian Alps on Sunday afternoon, saying policymakers must act to ensure avalanches don't become a more regular occurrence.
Sydney is flooded, again, as climate crisis becomes new normal for Australia's most populous state
5 Jul 2022
On a fine day, locals arrive on boats that motor up the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales to dine on the back deck of the Paradise Café.
Restoring nature is not a silver bullet for global warming, we must cut emissions outright
5 Jul 2022
Restoring degraded environments, such as by planting trees, is often touted as a solution to the climate crisis. But our new research shows this, while important, is no substitute for preventing fossil fuel emissions to limit global warming.
Climate change threatens coffee growers in Tanzania
4 Jul 2022
Coffee-growing farmers in Tanzania’s northern Kilimanjaro region are bearing the brunt of climate change, which is affecting their incomes and livelihoods.
Councils take aim at climate crisis
1 Jul 2022
More local authorities are taking aim at the climate crisis, with Queenstown Lakes District Council and Hamilton City Council both adopting climate policies yesterday.
Best by the rest…
1 Jul 2022
In our weekly round-up of the best climate coverage in the local media: questions about new carbon offsets; wrestling with methane metrics; and He Waka Eke Noa’s programme director argues Kiwi innovation will be key to reducing emissions.
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
Fri 19 Dec 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Government-owned Landcorp, trading as Pāmu, is one-third of the way to meeting its 2031 emissions reduction targets, with five years left to run to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30.3% against 2021 emissions.
NZ’s government wants tourism to drive economic growth – but how will it deal with aviation emissions?
22 Oct 2025
By Robert McLachlan, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University | Following a brief dip during the COVID pandemic, aviation is back in a growth phase.
Air NZ inks deal for its first internationally verified carbon credits
9 Oct 2025
By Liz Kivi | Air New Zealand has committed to buying 8000 tonnes of carbon removals by 2030, in partnership with local native forest investment platform My Native Forest.
‘Cali Fund’ aiming to raise billions for nature receives first donation – of just $1,000
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
Fri 19 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s controversial changes to New Zealand’s legal framework for climate policy have thrown a spanner in the works for a long-running Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry into climate change.
Seven quiet wins for climate and nature in 2025
Fri 19 Dec 2025
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
Fri 19 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | With New Zealand's $1.3 billion international climate finance commitment set to end with no clarity on what follows, the Auditor-General says oversight of that funding remains patchy and long-term outcomes are unclear.
Transport dominates NZ’s rising consumer emissions
10 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Transport pollution was the biggest contributor to an increase in New Zealand’s consumption-based emissions in 2023, with emissions from household travel up 12%, and consumption-based emissions totalling 58.3 million tonnes – up 1.6% from the previous year.
Hydrogen emissions are ‘supercharging’ the warming impact of methane
Fri 19 Dec 2025
The warming impact of hydrogen has been “overlooked” in projections of climate change, according to authors of the latest “global hydrogen budget”.
RMA to speed up fossil fuel consents
18 Aug 2025
By Liz Kivi | An energy lobby group has welcomed a last-minute amendment to the RMA that puts fossil fuels on the same footing as renewables, however a sustainable energy expert says the move “beggars belief.”
Westpac NZ announces partnership to form Blue Economy hub in Nelson
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.
Govt slammed for weakening methane target
15 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams The Government has pushed through legislation under urgency to almost halve New Zealand’s 2050 methane target – a move Opposition parties say disregards scientific advice, breaks the country’s hard-won political consensus on climate action, and shifts the burden of higher warming and higher future costs onto the next generation.
COP30 microcosm of difficult geopolitics, says Vanuatu's Climate Minister
15 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | Despite ‘intransigent’ states blocking multilateralism and a disappointing official outcome, Vanuatu’s Climate Change Minister Ralph Regenvanu says he left the COP30 climate summit feeling more positive than after previous UN climate conferences.
Hiringa eyes green methanol plant near Whanganui
29 Jul 2025
By Pattrick Smellie | Green hydrogen pioneer Hiringa Energy is deep in planning to develop an “eight-to-nine figure” methanol plant near Whanganui, using a combination of biomass and hydrogen produced using renewable energy.
Insurers welcome govt decision to keep NHC levy unchanged
21 Nov 2025
Media release |The Insurance Council of New Zealand | Te Kāhui Inihua o Aotearoa (ICNZ) has welcomed the Government’s decision to leave the Natural Hazards Commission levy unchanged, amid ongoing concerns around the cost-of-living.
Why I’m not outraged at the Govt’s latest climate backsliding
7 Nov 2025
COMMENT: The Government’s latest climate rollbacks underline New Zealand’s long history of a lack of genuine desire to cut emissions, writes Geoff Bertram.
Three Greenpeace activists removed by police from Fonterra
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.
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.
Wetlands and biodiversity at risk as mining rules loosen: Greenpeace
Fri 19 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Greenpeace says Government changes to national direction instruments under the RMA paves the way for mining in wetlands and biodiversity hotspots and will expose some of Aotearoa’s most fragile ecosystems to irreversible damage.
NZ could become ‘dumping ground’ for dirty vehicles: Commissioner
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
Fri 19 Dec 2025
Media release | A study conducted by researchers from Murdoch University in Australia and Dalian Ocean University in China has found that offshore windfarms can improve marine ecosystems and diversify aquatic food chains.
‘A shift no country can ignore’: where global emissions stand, 10 years after the Paris climate agreement
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.
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.
Last minute change to oil and gas legislation over cleanup costs
31 Jul 2025
By Liz Kivi | The government is expected to repeal the oil and gas ban today, with a last-minute amendment handing discretionary power to two ministers over the controversial issue of decommissioning.
The surprisingly convincing case against cars
Fri 19 Dec 2025
Life After Cars dares to imagine how different, and enriching, a car-free world could be.
Kaicycle celebrates ten years of collective climate action in Pōneke
14 Nov 2025
Media release: Kaicycle | Since 2015, Kaicycle has grown from a humble pilot project growing kai and collecting compost on bicycles into the thriving urban farm and composting hub that Wellingtonians know and love.
Heatwaves, downpours and droughts – Auckland on track for more extreme weather
1 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New projections show Auckland will face more heatwaves, heavier downpours, worsening droughts and growing coastal threats as climate extremes intensify, according to a new report from Earth Sciences New Zealand.
NZ just had its hottest spring in at least 116 years
10 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | This year New Zealand had its hottest spring since records began, with widespread heat, rainfall extremes and destructive wind driven by sudden stratospheric warming.
Media round-up
12 Dec 2025
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: Another offshore wind firm exits New Zealand over a clash with seabed mining; Fonterra falls behind on its climate goals as farm emissions remain flat; and the businesses trapped by the gas 'death spiral'.
