Topics tagged with 'Greenhouse Effect'
Australia pledges net zero emissions by 2050
27 Oct 2021
Leading global coal and gas supplier Australia has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
India lost $87bn due to natural disasters last year: WMO
27 Oct 2021
India lost $87 billion last year due to natural disasters such as tropical cyclones, floods and droughts, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
Wealthy countries spending more on border security than climate aid
27 Oct 2021
Wealthy countries are giving more money to defence contractors to beef up their border security than to fulfilling their climate aid commitments, a new study has found.
How to turn a desert into a forest
27 Oct 2021
A group of “holistic engineers” wants to return the arid Sinai peninsula to the lush, green landscape it once was.
New Zealand might not announce its NDC until after COP26: Shaw
26 Oct 2021
Climate change minister James Shaw told an online forum last week that he wasn’t sure whether he would be announcing a renewed Nationally Determined Contribution before or even at next month’s COP26 Conference in Glasgow.
Climate scientists fear tipping points (maybe you should too)
26 Oct 2021
The real disaster scenario begins with the triggering of invisible climate tripwires known as tipping points.
Permafrost: a ticking carbon time bomb
26 Oct 2021
Sheltered by snow-spattered mountains, the Stordalen mire is a flat, marshy plateau, pockmarked with muddy puddles. A whiff of rotten eggs wafts through the fresh air.
India wants compensation for climate damage caused by rich nations
26 Oct 2021
India is seeking payment for the losses caused by climate disasters, its environment ministry said while laying out the country's positions on critical issues that will be negotiated at the United Nations' COP26 climate summit in the coming weeks.
NZ study finds airborne microplastics directly impact climate change
22 Oct 2021
New Zealand scientists recently found that microplastics – which are in our rivers, oceans, and land – are also in the air we breathe. Now local scientists have discovered airborne microplastic pollution is likely to directly affect climate change.
Document leak reveals nations lobbying to change key climate report
22 Oct 2021
A huge leak of documents seen by BBC News shows how countries are trying to change a crucial scientific report on how to tackle climate change.
70% of sustainability experts expect bleak climate future: survey
22 Oct 2021
Around 70% of the world’s top sustainability experts remain pessimistic about the future of the planet and humanity’s ability to avert disasters due to climate change. In a new poll, the experts warned of the slow pace of climate action and the low prospects of the world meeting the Paris agreement goals
NZ dairy industry linked to illegal Indonesian palm oil plantations: Greenpeace
22 Oct 2021
Media Release - A new report released today by Greenpeace Indonesia, " Deceased Estate: Illegal palm oil wiping out Indonesia’s national forest", reveals that illegal palm oil plantations are destroying protected Indonesian rainforests and other habitats, and New Zealand’s industrial dairy sector is a major beneficiary.
Strong business support for mandatory climate change risk reporting
21 Oct 2021
Eighty-six per cent of businesses that made submissions on the Climate Related Disclosures Bill supported mandatory disclosure, climate change minister James Shaw told a briefing on a governance and risk management consultation document released yesterday.
Why fossil fuel subsidies are so hard to kill
21 Oct 2021
Fossil-fuel subsidies are one of the biggest financial barriers hampering the world’s shift to renewable energy sources. Each year, governments around the world pour around half a trillion dollars into artificially lowering the price of fossil fuels — more than triple what renewables receive.
Europeans want climate action but show little appetite for radical lifestyle change
21 Oct 2021
EUROPEANS want urgent action on climate change but remain committed meat-eaters and question policy proposals such as banning the sale of new petrol vehicles after 2030, according to a new poll from the YouGov-Cambridge Centre for Public Opinion Research that surveyed environmental attitudes in seven European countries, including the UK.
New UN endorsed right to a healthy environment could speed up NZ climate action
20 Oct 2021
Associate professor of law Nathan Cooper argues that a recent UN decision recognising the right to a healthy environment could have implications for New Zealand's methane emissions in this Conversation piece.
How trading CO2 could save the climate or not: BBC
20 Oct 2021
For its proponents, a global carbon market could significantly reduce the world's carbon emissions. But its critics say that giving polluters the option to pay for their emissions is not the answer to climate change.
Climate inaction could slash GDP by 3% per annum: Bank of America
19 Oct 2021
The cost of inaction over climate change could lead to the loss of 3 per cent of gross domestic product every year by 2030, ballooning to $69 trillion by the end of this century, Bank of America said in a report.
South Korea aims to cut carbon emissions by 40% in 2030
19 Oct 2021
South Korea set a new goal on Monday for fighting climate change over the next decade, saying it will aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 2018 levels by 2030.
Biden administration considers carbon tax
19 Oct 2021
A US Democrat’s decision to oppose a key policy in Joe Biden’s climate plan could lead to a carbon tax on emissions-intensive industries and threaten Australian exports.
The climate crisis is a child-rights crisis
19 Oct 2021
Children across the world have inherited a problem that is not of their making. A new report from Save the Children - Born into The Climate Crisis: Why we must act now to secure children’s rights - highlights the impact that the climate crisis is having on children’s rights now, and for future generations.
The carbon offset market could be worth $200 billion by 2050. But what is it?
19 Oct 2021
Companies and people who want to cancel out the impact of their emissions on the climate often turn to something called carbon offsetting.
Climate aid boost the wrong move at the wrong time: National
19 Oct 2021
Media Release - The Government’s decision to commit $1.3 billion over four years to support poorer countries to deal with climate change is the wrong one, given New Zealand is still struggling with lockdowns which have no end in sight, National’s Climate Change Spokesperson Stuart Smith says.
Climate aid boost a fantastic outcome: Oxfam
19 Oct 2021
Media Release - Today's announcement is a fantastic outcome for communities on the frontlines of climate change, Oxfam Aotearoa Executive Director Rachael Le Mesurier said in response to the $1.3 billion the Government has promised in climate finance over the next four years.
From a throwaway society to a circular economy
18 Oct 2021
New Zealanders are world leaders when it comes to dumping waste in landfills – in 2018 we chucked out the equivalent of 730kg per person – and all that waste ends up contributing about 4% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Global carbon price of US$100 needed according to Nobel Prize-winning economist
18 Oct 2021
Economist William Nordhouse, who won the 2018 Nobel Prize in economics for his work on climate change, argues a global carbon price of around US$100 per tonne is needed if the world is to successfully tackle climate change.
Climate change a double blow for oil-rich Mideast: experts
18 Oct 2021
The climate crisis threatens a double blow for the Middle East, experts say, by destroying its oil income as the world shifts to renewables and by raising temperatures to unliveable extremes.
How climate change is threatening Australia’s favourite fruits
18 Oct 2021
Australian mango growers are expecting the smallest harvest in at least two decades this summer, cherry farmers are losing trees and grape growers are contending with shortening harvest windows.
Indigenous climate activists arrested after ‘occupying’ US Department of Interior
18 Oct 2021
Dozens of Indigenous climate activists were arrested and removed from the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington on Thursday after taking over a lobby of the department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs for several hours.
We need more radical climate fiction
18 Oct 2021
Literature has seen an uptick in "cli-fi," fiction about possible climate dystopias and utopias. But too much of that climate-change-related fiction lacks any kind of radical political imagination.
NZ ranks 9th in KPMG Net Zero Readiness Survey
15 Oct 2021
NEW ZEALAND'S agri-food sector is ranked first for decarbonisation in KPMG’s Net Zero Readiness Survey – a result that will be welcomed by the farming industry and raise eyebrows among environmentalists.
Carbon emissions from rich countries rose rapidly in 2021
15 Oct 2021
Carbon emissions are rebounding strongly and are rising across the world's 20 richest nations, according to a new study.
Warning that 42 countries are at risk of sinking below the waves due to climate change
15 Oct 2021
Some of the world's smallest countries could "disappear" without action at an upcoming UN summit to contain climate change, the secretary general of the Commonwealth has warned.
French court orders state to honour its climate commitments
15 Oct 2021
A French court has ordered the state to honour its commitments on climate change, environmental organisations bringing the case said on Thursday.
Shell CEO roasted at TED climate conference
15 Oct 2021
As Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden spoke at a TED conference, he was interrupted by organisers, one of whom called him "one of the most evil people in the world."
"Udder bullshit", leave it to the ETS, way to go: lobby groups respond to ERP
14 Oct 2021
Yesterday’s release of a discussion document on the government’s Emissions Reduction Plan has resulted in a flood of press releases. The verdicts range from “udder bullshit” and leave to the ETS to you’re on the right track but you’re not going fast enough.
Experts respond to ERP discussion document
14 Oct 2021
The Science Media Centre has compiled some expert reactions to the government's discussion document on its Emissions Reduction Plan.
'Adapt or die': UK Environment Agency
14 Oct 2021
Hundreds of people could die in floods in the UK, the Environment Agency has warned in a hard-hitting report that says the country is not ready for the impact of climate change.
Helsinki's climate moonshot
14 Oct 2021
Helsinki deserves credit for modeling not only how to set an innovative climate goal, but also how to craft a novel process to achieve it, writes MIT's Carlo Ratti.
Govt proposes allowing more emissions in the short-term and steeper cuts in the future
13 Oct 2021
THE government is proposing increasing the emissions budget recommended by the Climate Change Commission for the 2022-25 period by 2 megatonnes carbon dioxide equivalents, followed by cuts of 5Mt CO2e for the 2026-30 period, and 11 Mt CO2e in the 2031 – 31 period.
3 degrees warming and Wellington looks like the Venice of the south seas
13 Oct 2021
Wellington and Christchurch look like Venice, and Havana like Atlantis in a new interactive tool showing what some of the world's major cities will look if global warming is allowed to reach 3 degrees.
Handbook aims to empower community to restore the country’s wetlands
12 Oct 2021
Aotearoa lost nearly 5500 hectares of wetlands between 1996 and 2020, that’s one of the more startling facts in a handbook being launched today.
Climate change may already affect 85% of humanity
12 Oct 2021
Climate change could already be affecting 85% of the world’s population, an analysis of tens of thousands of scientific studies found.
Over 20 more countries vow to slash methane emissions
12 Oct 2021
U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry announced Monday that 24 additional countries agreed to a voluntary pledge to cut emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, by one-third by 2030.
A lack of fish faeces is changing the flow of carbon in the ocean
12 Oct 2021
A shortage of fish faeces is contributing to shifts in the ocean’s carbon cycle of an equivalent magnitude to that of the impact of climate change on the ocean.
UN can’t rule on climate case brought by Greta Thunberg
12 Oct 2021
A UN panel said it could not immediately rule on a complaint by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and others that inaction on climate change constitutes a violation of children’s rights.
45,000,000 doctors call for urgent action on climate change
12 Oct 2021
Media Release - Ambitious national climate commitments are crucial for States to sustain a healthy, green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new UN health agency report launched on Monday in the lead-up to the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
NZ a laggard in climate change related patents
11 Oct 2021
Only two OECD countries – Latvia and Indonesia – rank behind New Zealand in terms of the percentage of patent applications related to climate change mitigation, according a just released “dashboard” comparing the organisation’s 38 member states on a range of climate change related metrics.
Pentagon plans for warfare in hotter, harsher world
11 Oct 2021
A new Pentagon plan calls for incorporating the realities of a hotter, harsher Earth at every level in the U.S. military, from making worsening climate extremes a mandatory part of strategic planning to training troops how to secure their own water supplies and treat heat injury.
China to set up standards of carbon neutrality
11 Oct 2021
China is planning to set up and improve the standards of carbon peak and neutrality, according to an official outline published last week.
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'.
