Topics tagged with 'Greenhouse Effect'
Canada to join NZ in going net-zero by 2050
23 Nov 2020
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has presented a bill to commit Canada to cut its emissions to net zero by 2050 and set five-year targets to meet the goal.
FRIDAY POLITICS: Border tariffs on Govt's to-do list
20 Nov 2020
Carbon tariffs at the border are on the Government's agenda this term to protect the country’s steel, aluminium and cement industries as they decarbonise.
Paris goals threatened by farms, forests and industry
20 Nov 2020
Many parts of the global economy, especially agriculture and the cement and steel industries, are heading in the wrong direction or cleaning up their act far too slowly to limit global warming to 1.5deg researchers are warning..
Big prices but little supply in NZ carbon market
19 Nov 2020
Carbon prices are continuing to climb, with sellers now seeking up to $35.90 for spot NZUs.
Cutting carbon will cost tourism and export industries
19 Nov 2020
The tourism and export sectors need to prepare for growing transport costs, Climate Change Commission chair Dr Rod Carr is warning.
NZ called out over 2030 target
19 Nov 2020
New Zealand is being accused by countries most vulnerable to climate change of “defaulting on climate survival leadership”.
Ardern joins Mandela et al
19 Nov 2020
Implementing “stringent” measure on climate change have helped win Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern a prestigious international leadership title previously awarded to Nelson Mandala.
NZ's seas are heating up again, scientists say
18 Nov 2020
New Zealand is heading for another marine heatwave this summer – the third in four years, scientists are warning.
Climate crisis finds ample answers in world’s trees
18 Nov 2020
The great climate change challenge should consider the world’s trees.
Upton, Parker - Nats stopped the ETS working
17 Nov 2020
New Zealand’s failure to seriously address its emissions problem through the 2010s has come under fire from two politicians whose attempts to effectively price carbon were thwarted by National Governments.
US and Europe want our carbon credits
16 Nov 2020
International interest is growing in New Zealand’s carbon market as units hit record prices.
NZ needs to do more, says High Commissioner
13 Nov 2020
Britain wants New Zealand to do more on climate change, calling on companies to be carbon-neutral by 2040 and “welcoming” the country’s review of its 2030 emissions target.
Shaw talking tough on carbon budgets
12 Nov 2020
The Climate Change Commission could be given the ability to manage carbon prices if its carbon budget recommendations are not followed by politicians, the climate minister says.
Climate protest is legit, says business
12 Nov 2020
Business leaders are, apparently, ready to embrace non-violent protest as a legitimate form of climate action.
New fund helps businesses ditch coal and gas
12 Nov 2020
Businesses wanting to stop using coal and gas for heat can tap into a new $70 million fund.
WORTH NOTING ...
12 Nov 2020
Day two of the Climate Change and Business Conference is in Auckland today sees environment minister David Parker fronting up, as well as a discussion on what changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme mean for carbon prices.
'It's time,' Taylor says ahead of climate event
11 Nov 2020
Environmental Defence Society chief executive Gary Taylor is more optimistic about action on climate change than he has ever been.
The illicit trade in F-gases
11 Nov 2020
Attempts to crack down on climate-damaging fluorinated gases has instead sparked a flourishing black market in Europe.
WORTH NOTING ...
11 Nov 2020
The Climate Change and Business Conference is on in Auckland and online today and tomorrow.
No miracle energy sources to replace fossil fuels, says scientist
10 Nov 2020
Radical decarbonisation in line with the Paris Agreement means getting used to living in a world without abundant supplies of energy, ecologist Dr Mike Joy is warning.
Europe ready to restart transatlantic climate talks
10 Nov 2020
The European Commission and senior EU lawmakers say they are ready to intensify dialogue with the US on climate change, listing car CO2 limits and green finance among areas where “real transatlantic cooperation” is again possible after the four-year “Trump parenthesis”.
Biden says he will expose international 'climate outlaws'
10 Nov 2020
United States president-elect Joe Biden promises to usher in a more confrontational era of climate diplomacy, putting a spotlight on major emitters slow-walking climate action
WORTH NOTING ...
10 Nov 2020
It’s not too late to register for the Climate Change and Business Conference starting in Auckland tomorrow. The topic is redefining the future, and speakers include United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres, climate minister James Shaw and environment minister David Parker.
Ardern has high climate hopes for Biden
9 Nov 2020
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expects new United States President Joe Biden to act on climate change.
Biden could bring Paris goals 'within striking distance'
9 Nov 2020
The election of Joe Biden as president of the US could reduce global heating by about 0.1C, bringing the goals of the Paris agreement “within striking distance”, if his plans are fulfilled, according to a detailed analysis.
Scientists, doctors sound warning for farmers
6 Nov 2020
Emissions from food production alone could sink the world’s chances of meeting the Paris Agreement, scientists are warning in research with major implications for New Zealand.
US election will determine the world's climate future
6 Nov 2020
The race for the White House could take days or weeks to settle, with big implications for prospects of tackling the climate crisis.
How well is Scotland tackling climate change?
5 Nov 2020
This time next year, Scotland will be hosting a major UN climate change conference.
Energy sector ripe for govt emissions targets
3 Nov 2020
The Government appears to have emissions from energy in its sights as it seeks to finally make real cuts in the country's emissions.
Pension fund settles landmark climate lawsuit
3 Nov 2020
One of Australia's largest pension funds has agreed to settle a landmark climate risk litigation filed by a 25-year-old member who alleged it was failing to protect his retirement savings against climate change.
Rewilded farmland can save money − and the Earth
3 Nov 2020
An international consortium of scientists has worked out − once again − how to conserve life on the planet and absorb dramatic quantities of the atmospheric carbon that is driving potentially calamitous climate change.
New Govt unlikely to cut farmers more slack
2 Nov 2020
Speculation the Government may go soft on agricultural emissions without the Green Party in Cabinet ignores Labour’s track record on the issue.
The cost to Australia of unchecked climate change
2 Nov 2020
Australia’s economy will be six per cent smaller, there will be 880,000 fewer jobs and $3.4 trillion in economic opportunities will be lost if the climate crisis goes unchecked for next 50 years, new analysis shows.
Bushfire inquiry says it's going to get worse
2 Nov 2020
Australia must prepare for an "alarming" future of simultaneous and worsening natural disasters, says a long-awaited report into the country's bushfires.
Bank to ban companies using coal
30 Oct 2020
The ANZ Bank says it will not take on any new customers using coal, and that by 2030 it will finance gas and renewable power generation only.
FRIDAY POLITICS: We'll know by Sunday
30 Oct 2020
We should know on Sunday whether James Shaw will remain the country’s climate minister.
Most Aussies care about climate change - poll
30 Oct 2020
New polling shows 79 per cent of Australians care about climate change. So why doesn’t the Government listen?
ORR: Pacific adaptability a lesson for the world
29 Oct 2020
Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr is invoking his own Pacific heritage in a new call for collective action on climate change.
South Korea joins Japan in making 2050 carbon-neutral pledge
29 Oct 2020
South Korea is the latest country to pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
India's cities look to become climate-smarter
28 Oct 2020
India's southern city of Hyderabad is known as a high-tech hub - but its infrastructure is looking increasingly dated in an era of strengthening climate change impacts.
2020 on course to be warmest year on record
28 Oct 2020
While this year will be memorable for many reasons, it is now more likely than not that 2020 will also be the warmest year for the Earth’s surface since reliable records began in the mid-1800s.
Dust threatens Western US and Southeast Asia
28 Oct 2020
Half a planet apart, one low-lying and the other on the roof of the world, two huge regions confront an increasing dust risk − a menace to jobs, to food and to lives.
Japan to be carbon-neutral by 2050
27 Oct 2020
Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has said the country will become carbon neutral by 2050, heralding a bolder approach to tackling the climate emergency by the world’s third-biggest economy.
Which countries have a net-zero carbon target?
27 Oct 2020
Twenty-eight countries, one American state and the European Union says they are committed to being carbon-neutral by 2050.
FRIDAY POLITICS: A potentially costly hole in the Government's carbon-auctioning plan
23 Oct 2020
Green Party co-leader James Shaw is still in the running to retain his role as the country’s climate minister – but that might mean clearing up a bit of a mess of his own making.
Geology’s human footprint is enough to spur rage
22 Oct 2020
Once again science has presented evidence that a new geological epoch is here. This human footprint is all our own work.
Businesses talking sustainable procurement
21 Oct 2020
Some of the country’s biggest organisations are working together to figure out how to drive sustainable purchasing by businesses.
Let's cool the ground and keep drilling, says Big Oil
21 Oct 2020
Oil company ConocoPhillips has a problem; it wants to pump 160,000 more barrels of oil each day from a new project on Alaska’s North Slope, but the fossil fuels it and others produce are leading to global heating, and the Arctic is melting.
Why Rudd wants an inquiry into the Murdoch empire
21 Oct 2020
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the spreading of misinformation about climate change and other issues warrants a Royal Commission investigation into Rupert Murdoch's media monopoly.
Election has little impact on carbon markets
20 Oct 2020
Carbon markets have barely reacted to the general election, which returned Labour to power with an absolutely majority and arguably an endorsement of its actions on climate change.
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'.
