Topics tagged with 'Greenhouse Effect'
Methane emissions higher than feared, say scientists
10 Feb 2017
Global methane emissions from oil production between 1980 and 2012 were far higher than previously thought – in some cases, as much as double the amount previously estimated, according to a new scientific study.
Relying on foreign credits dangerous, say officials
9 Feb 2017
New Zealand cannot rely on international carbon credits to meet its emissions reductions targets after 2030, officials have told the Government, warning that credits could be expensive and in short supply.
Report explains Australia's worsening weather
9 Feb 2017
Climate change is now influencing all extreme weather events with some of the most severe climate impacts the world has experienced occurring in 2016, a new Climate Council report has found.
Scientists call for unravelling of basic climate change
8 Feb 2017
A group of distinguished climate scientists has called for a massive international co-operation to understand absolutely basic climate change.
Seawater puts a dent in delta rice production
8 Feb 2017
Urgent action is being called for to prevent salt intrusion causing severe damage to rice production and loss of drinking water in Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Tourism can make the world cleaner and greener
7 Feb 2017
OPINION | Tourism can be a force for good – depending how you do it, say World Tourism Organisation director-general TALEB RIFAI, United Nations Environment executive-director ERIK SOLHEIM and UNFCCC head PATRICIA ESPINOSA.
UK must not cool stance on global warming
7 Feb 2017
One of Britain’s most senior scientists has expressed concern that action to tackle global warming is sliding down the government’s list of priorities despite its ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Not such a nice day for a walk ... in some places
2 Feb 2017
Thanks to climate change, there will be more perfect days in President Trump’s America.
Small-scale hydro makes a big difference
1 Feb 2017
It’s hard to appreciate the difference electricity makes to your life, unless you’ve ever had to live entirely without it.
UN will reward game-changing climate change ideas
1 Feb 2017
Organisations, cities, industries, governments and others taking a lead on tackling climate change can nominate their game-changing projects for a United Nations award.
Cold war days and the powers are talking climate change
31 Jan 2017
On the agenda at the secret meeting of scientists and the top brass of the US military was the increased melting of Arctic ice and changes in the climate.
EDS slams meaningless energy efficiency plans
27 Jan 2017
The Government is being told its latest plan to improve energy efficiency in New Zealand is misleading and brings its efforts on climate change into disrepute.
Mexico works on setting up emissions trading
27 Jan 2017
Mexico is drawing on international business experience to develop the country’s emissions trading scheme.
Can we learn to leave our wild forests alone?
27 Jan 2017
Here is how to turn a forest into a carbon-consuming machine that will help to contain global warming. Leave it alone. Let it grow. Do not log it.
How tiny microbes are revolutionising big agriculture
27 Jan 2017
Walk into your typical US or UK grocery store and feast your eyes on an amazing bounty of fresh and processed foods. In most industrialised countries, it’s hard to imagine that food production is one of the greatest challenges we will face in the coming decades.
World needs to manage food, water and energy
27 Jan 2017
There is an increasing global demand for food, water and energy. All three are inter-linked, a fact that has increasingly become the focus of attention for policy makers and governments.
Climate change caused Middle East dust storm
27 Jan 2017
A storm of dust so fierce that it obscured seven Middle Eastern nations from satellite observation has been blamed on climate change.
US faces ‘abrupt and substantial’ crop losses
26 Jan 2017
Harvests in the United States are liable to shrink by between a fifth and a half of their present size because of rising temperatures, an international scientific team has found.
Exxon predicts 25% rise in energy demand
25 Jan 2017
The world’s biggest oil conglomerate says it expects global energy demand to increase by a quarter in the next 23 years.
MORGAN'S MESSAGE: You pollute, you pay
24 Jan 2017
POLLUTERS will pay under Gareth Morgan’s TOP party. And it will be good for business, he says.
PACIFIC PROBLEM: Carbon cuts will not settle seas
24 Jan 2017
Even supposing the world does make dramatic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, the fate of the small island states remains uncertain.
Come see Pacific for yourself, MP tells Trump
21 Dec 2016
A New Zealand MP is challenging United States president-elect Donald Trump to come to the Pacific and see the impacts of climate change for himself.
Global warming already causing local extinctions
21 Dec 2016
Climate change is already beginning to alter the natural world. A study of 976 plant and animal species worldwide – freshwater, terrestrial and marine – reveals that local extinctions have happened in 47 per cent of their natural ranges.
Climate change puts the squeeze on coffee belt
21 Dec 2016
As a famous old song says, they’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil. But if the findings of New Zealand and Australian researchers are right, that will change over the next 30 years.
Officials eye impact of carbon exposure on investments
20 Dec 2016
Government officials are talking about the potential impact of carbon exposure on investments.
New ways are Labour's way, says Little
19 Dec 2016
Labour Party leader Andrew Little says he’s backing the low-carbon economy as the future for New Zealand.
Bennett stands alone in climate change portfolio
19 Dec 2016
The climate portfolio is now held by the deputy prime minister – the highest ranking it has ever had in New Zealand.
China’s electric vehicles set for bumpy ride
19 Dec 2016
The statistics are impressive: sales of electric vehicles in China are likely to reach 400,000 this year, a more than 150 per cent increase on the figure for 2015.
Farming faces pressure from global methane rise
16 Dec 2016
A rapid increase in global methane emissions could put New Zealand under renewed international pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.
Bloomberg study urges climate financial disclosures
15 Dec 2016
Climate-related financial disclosures should be part of the public reporting of companies, a major new report says.
Businesses must come clean on carbon, says Carney
15 Dec 2016
Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned that the fight against climate change will be jeopardised unless companies with big carbon footprints come clean about their exposure to global warming risks.
New emissions reduction plan business as usual
15 Dec 2016
The Government’s plan to cut the emissions intensity from industrial heat generation by 1 per cent a year is just business as usual, and will do little to achieve New Zealand’s Paris Agreement commitment.
The stuff we've put on Earth weighs 30 trillion tonnes
15 Dec 2016
Scientists have calculated the mass of that unnatural achievement called the “technosphere”, demonstrating the scale of human activity that drives climate change.
THE HEAT GOES ON: This year will be our hottest
14 Dec 2016
This year is set to be New Zealand’s hottest on record, confirming the long-term trend of global warming and prompting calls for tougher action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Shrinking glaciers tell the whole climate story
14 Dec 2016
Retreating glaciers clearly document regional climate change over decade-long periods of time, suggesting that today’s shrinking glaciers are conclusive evidence that the climate is changing, says a paper published in Nature Geoscience.
Govt targets industrial sector in new energy strategy
13 Dec 2016
The Government has unveiled plans to cut the emissions intensity of the country’s industrial sector by 1 per cent a year.
Greens' bill calls for sustainability reporting
12 Dec 2016
A proposal to make the Government report on environmental and social progress alongside economic performance is to go before Parliament.
Unhealthy forests affect distant ecosystems
12 Dec 2016
Ecologists have demonstrated, once again, the global importance of healthy forests.
Tinkering with plants helps to boost crop yields
12 Dec 2016
Plant scientists in the US have devised a new way to enhance the efficiency of crops: tune up the biochemical machinery of plants such as wheat, rice, maize, or even cabbages, to make the best of the available light and so increase yields.
Earth's bulging wasteline is becoming a problem
12 Dec 2016
In school, we learnt that the tropical zone is defined as the hot region of our planet – between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.
Climate deniers face scientific pushback
12 Dec 2016
People who argue that climate change is not happening or that the scientific case for it is overstated – climate deniers – should probably start preparing for a more robust response from scientists themselves.
Anxious states await extreme bushfire season
8 Dec 2016
New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory are bracing for another severe bushfire season, as climate change continues to drive extreme conditions, a new report says.
CLIMATE CALL: Waterway plantings worth billions
6 Dec 2016
New Zealand will be billions of dollars a year better off if it plants trees along waterways.
Anxious investors plead for clear climate policy
6 Dec 2016
Australian investors want clear climate policy that delivers certainty – and access to international carbon markets, says the Investor Group on Climate Change.
GRITTY GIFT: Windborne dust is Africa's export to the world
6 Dec 2016
Climate scientists have identified Africa’s single biggest export – the windborne dust that fertilises the Amazon forests, nourishes life in the Atlantic ocean and softens the noonday blaze of the sun.
Cement develops an appetite for C02
5 Dec 2016
Three new studies illuminate the sheer complexity of the aspect of climate science known as the carbon cycle − how carbon dioxide gets into the atmosphere and out again.
Climate watchdog welcomes Treasury decision
2 Dec 2016
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Jan Wright is welcoming the news that Treasury is talking about the possible impacts on New Zealand of sea-level rise.
More and more people are getting into bigger trouble
2 Dec 2016
On average, one person is displaced each second by a disaster-related hazard. In global terms, that’s about 26 million people a year.
Wise Responders welcome Treasury's reaction to risk
30 Nov 2016
A group of eminent New Zealanders who petitioned Parliament to order a risk assessment of the impacts of climate change is welcoming Treasury’s apparent support for at least part of the idea.
Trump can't stop rising use of fossil fuels
30 Nov 2016
Climate policies will keep chipping away at fossil fuels’ role as the mainstay of global energy use, despite Donald Trump’s appointment as United States president in 2017, according to a new report by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
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
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
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
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
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'.
