Topics tagged with 'Greenhouse Effect'
Can ‘climate corridors’ help species to adapt?
8 Aug 2016
If you flip over a log in a forest in the southeastern US, you are likely to find a squirming salamander. A healthy forest floor, full of fallen branches and rotting leaves, provides these amphibians with the moisture, protection and food they need to survive and thrive.
Trees clear winner as carbon farmer cashes in
5 Aug 2016
Carbon credits have netted a dairy farmer more than he could have ever made from running livestock on his Taranaki hill country.
Businesses call for ETS policy certainty
4 Aug 2016
Calls for cross-party policy on climate change, and complaints about “continual and ad-hoc” changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme dominated comments on the first stage of the latest review of the scheme.
SHARKNADO 4: Really, this movie matters
4 Aug 2016
Given that 2016 is expected to be the hottest year on record, it stands to reason climate change should be an issue nations are rushing to address.
We look to be light on climate change officials
3 Aug 2016
The Government has only a handful of staff dedicated to working fulltime on climate change.
Industry slams failure of free-market forestry
1 Aug 2016
New Zealand’s experiment with free-market forestry has left it without the forests needed to combat climate change and supply the domestic market with wood, the industry says.
NZ scientist to join key climate study
1 Aug 2016
A New Zealand political scientist is to join a crucial planning meeting on how the world’s scientific community should respond to the challenge of limiting global warming.
... and it's staying warm here
1 Aug 2016
The unseasonably warm weather is likely to continue, with forecasters saying there is a 65 to 70 per cent chance that the next three months will be warmer than usual.
Bennett: We'll have to revisit emissions cuts
28 Jul 2016
New Zealand will take another look at its post-2020 emissions reduction target once it has ratified the Paris Agreement, the climate change minister says.
SUSTAINABILITY: We're getting the hang of it
27 Jul 2016
New Zealand companies are becoming more socially and environmentally active – and it’s all down to the housing crisis, growing inequality and the United Nations’ new sustainable development goals.
Z gets an A for corporate responsibility
27 Jul 2016
New kid on the block Z Energy was the only New Zealand-owned company to get top marks in this year’s review of the state of corporate social responsibility in New Zealand and Australia.
Floods sound call to sea-level action, say Greens
27 Jul 2016
Floods in Kapiti and Waitara last weekend show why the Government must take action over rising sea levels caused by climate change, says the Green Party.
PARIS POSER: We must sign the pledge ... but when?
26 Jul 2016
An announcement is imminent on the tricky question of when New Zealand will ratify the Paris Agreement.
Pest-free state could help to control climate changes
26 Jul 2016
The Government’s mission to make New Zealand predator-free by 2050 could have a positive spin-off for the battle against a warming climate.
Scientists call for more work on 1.5deg target
26 Jul 2016
More research is needed on the risks involved in even 1.5 degrees of warming, a Scientists call for new report shows.
Huge Episcopal church backs climate action
26 Jul 2016
The Paris Agreement on climate change has the backing of America’s largest and oldest Black church.
Irish agriculture faces emissions dilemma
26 Jul 2016
Ireland is facing a classic conflict, pitching economic growth targets against the need for action on climate change.
PHEW! Are these really winter temperatures?
25 Jul 2016
Winter temperature records across the country continue to tumble, with Auckland as warm on Saturday night as a night in November.
MINE GAMES: Plunder of Earth’s natural resources is rising
25 Jul 2016
Humans’ appetite for gnawing away at the fabric of the Earth itself is growing prodigiously.
Our forests key to the future, say scientists
22 Jul 2016
Heavy-emitting businesses could be buying more than $500 million worth of forestry credits a year by 2025, says the Crown Research Institute Scion.
UN awards us a fail mark for handling of environment
22 Jul 2016
New Zealand’s poor environmental management – including action on climate change and sustainable agriculture – has scored it a fail mark on five of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Climate change costs are still climbing
22 Jul 2016
The massive economic and health losses that climate change is already causing across the world are detailed in six scientific papers published today.
Minister reports on second stage of ETS review
20 Jul 2016
Climate change minister Paula Bennett has reported to her colleagues on the second stage of the Emissions Trading Scheme review.
Offshore windfarms power ahead in Europe
20 Jul 2016
Falling costs mean that power generated by offshore wind farms is becoming increasingly competitive with other fuels – and that’s good news for the climate.
Carbon policy proposals fail to impress Beehive
19 Jul 2016
Two policy proposals floated in Carbon News yesterday – a Climate Responsibility Act, and combining carbon trading with a carbon tax and a cut in the goods and services tax – have not impressed the Government.
New climate minister believes in 'moral case' for coal
19 Jul 2016
A man who recently argued there is a strong moral case for Australia to build new coal mines and export the coal to India is now in charge of the country’s climate change policy.
Britain could warm by 4deg this century
19 Jul 2016
Scientific advisers warn that, by 2100, temperatures in Britain could rise by twice as much as the internationally agreed limit set at the Paris climate conference.
Humans leave greater green fingerprints
19 Jul 2016
Evidence of increased greening of the northern hemisphere over the past half-century points to the dominant effect human-induced greenhouse gases have on climate.
CLIMATE COSTS: Someone needs to be responsible
18 Jul 2016
A Climate Responsibility Act is being mooted to protect New Zealand from irresponsible environmental management in the same way the Fiscal Responsibility Act protects it from irresponsible financial management.
DROUGHT-DODGER: Let's hear it for the humble bean
18 Jul 2016
Scientists have found that some varieties of beans − a vital food crop grown on every continent except Antarctica − have developed ways of coping with the climate-related droughts that threaten them.
Subsidy loss will cost dairy farmers a 'low' $4588
15 Jul 2016
Removal of the one-for-two carbon subsidy will cost dairy farmers $4588 and households between $66 and $99 - costs that Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett says are “relatively low”.
Firms made closure threats over 1:2 subsidy change
15 Jul 2016
Four companies threatened to close if the Government removed the one-for-two carbon subsidy.
POWER STRUGGLE: Why the energy market doesn't work
15 Jul 2016
The energy market must be fundamentally redesigned to deal with climate change, say the authors of two studies comparing the impacts of photovoltaics and fossil fuels supply chains.
This time, can Turnbull do climate and energy?
15 Jul 2016
Australia’s re-elected Coalition government has the opportunity to revamp its policies on climate change.
POWER SHOCK: Just how climate friendly are we?
14 Jul 2016
New Zealand’s electricity generation might not be as climate friendly as we think.
Three reasons to be cheerful about the 1.5deg target
14 Jul 2016
The recent streak of record-breaking temperatures has shown that climate change is not waiting for the world to take decisive action.
GRIM GOLD: Precious metals leave hidden climate footprint
13 Jul 2016
The collapse of the Soviet Union left Bulgaria achieving in the 1990s what the rest of the world is working hard to manage in the 2020s, a reduction in its carbon dioxide emissions of more than 45 per cent.
Forester urges Govt to remove carbon market risks
12 Jul 2016
New Zealand will not get forestry investment on the scale needed to tackle climate change unless it cuts risk associated with the carbon market, says a company that planted 6500 hectares of carbon forests in the heyday of the Emissions Trading Scheme.
How a single word sparked a four-year saga of climate fact-checking and blog backlash
12 Jul 2016
By JOELLE GERGIS | In May 2012, my colleagues and I had a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Climate, showing that temperatures recorded in New Zealand and Australia since 1950 were warmer than at any time in the past 1000 years.
Disturbing forests damages natural diversity
12 Jul 2016
By TIM RADFORD | It is not enough just to conserve forest. It may be just as important not to disturb any of it.
BONUS BILLION: Our untouched energy potential
11 Jul 2016
New Zealand businesses have a billion dollars worth of unrealised energy efficiency potential, says the head of the country’s energy conservation authority.
VW emissions scandal fuels corporate doubts
11 Jul 2016
Volkswagen has told the US Department of Justice that it will be paying nearly $15 billion in an effort to settle claims made by motorists in the US following the scandal over vehicle emissions.
Climate change killed Europeans in 2003 heat
11 Jul 2016
British researchers say climate change was responsible for the deaths of more than 60 people in London in 2003, and over 500 in Paris.
Europe puts weight behind Korean ETS
11 Jul 2016
Europe is supporting the development of Korea’s Emissions Trading Scheme in a $5.3 million three-year partnership.
Drying lands increase peat bog fire hazard
11 Jul 2016
Scientists in Canada have confirmed once again an unexpected hazard in the world of climate change: the subterranean fire.
Road emissions rising ... at just the wrong time
8 Jul 2016
New Zealand’s transport emissions are expected to increase at the very time they need to fall to meet the country’s Paris Agreement target, a new analysis shows.
Bennett keen to talk with opposition parties
8 Jul 2016
Climate change minister Paula Bennett says she wants to talk to other political parties.
Climate change website dries up
8 Jul 2016
The Government’s climate change website – a one-stop shop for all climate-related Government business– is no more.
CLIMATE CRUNCH: Is the political ice beginning to melt?
7 Jul 2016
Cross-party political agreement on climate change action might have come a step closer.
Nature and wildlife need their own seats at the UN
7 Jul 2016
Whether we consider wild weather, unprecedented Arctic melting and global temperatures, or the Great Barrier Reef, the global environment is generating alarming news.
Fifty years of observations, no reversal of glacier climate damage
Tue 31 Mar 2026
Media release: Earth Sciences New Zealand | Fifty years on from the first aerial survey of our Southern Alps glaciers, late snow and variable summer weather delivered a temporary reprieve from rapid ice loss, says Earth Sciences New Zealand.
Fonterra admits ‘100% grass-fed’ claim breached law in greenwashing row
Today 11:45am
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Fonterra has admitted its “100% New Zealand grass-fed” claims on Anchor butter were misleading and breached the law, settling a case brought by Greenpeace Aotearoa over packaging used between December 2023 and April 2025.
$30m airline fund risks ‘burning public money’ without lasting benefit – expert
20 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | A $30 million government package to support regional air routes risks delivering poor value for money while increasing emissions, according to transport strategist Tim Adriaansen.
Signs of jet fuel hoarding emerge in Asia on Iran oil shock
26 Mar 2026
Signs are growing that Asian countries are hoarding jet fuel after the Iran war sent oil prices surging, reflecting growing strain on the aviation industry.
New protections for NZ migratory species under UN convention
Today 11:45am
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New international protections for migratory species, including several found in New Zealand, are a positive step – but global protections won’t halt the decline of migratory species on their own, experts say.
Air NZ joins Marsden Point SAF project
3 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Air New Zealand has quietly added its name to a consortium exploring the viability of green hydrogen production for sustainable aviation fuel at Channel Infrastructure’s Marsden Point energy hub.
Economic contraction will impact carbon market
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Liz Kivi | While higher fossil fuel prices strengthen the long-run economics of decarbonisation, the current fuel crisis won’t inspire near-term confidence in the carbon market, according to Lizzie Chambers of Carbon Match.
Asia ramps up use of dirty fuels to cover energy shortfall triggered by Iran war
Today 11:45am
South Korea will delay the shutdown of coal-fired plants, while the Philippines also plans to boost the output of its coal-burning plants
Carbon price: Ups and downs amid geopolitical uncertainty
26 Mar 2026
By Liz Kivi | After ups and downs in recent weeks, the carbon market again broke above the $40 mark this week, with questions around how the Middle East conflict will play out weighing on market confidence.
Labour mulls GIDI 2.0 as factory closures mount
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Factory closures across the country could have been prevented if the last Labour-led government’s GIDI fund to assist companies with the cost of electrification hadn't been scrapped, Labour energy spokesperson, Megan Woods, says.
Death toll in Afghanistan flooding increases to 28, authorities say
Wed 1 Apr 2026
Afghan authorities said Monday that the death toll from severe weather that has struck swathes of the country over the past four days has increased to 28, with 49 people injured. Dozens of people have died from extreme weather in the country so far this year.
Sustainable retail-office project breaks ground under new Green Star framework
19 Feb 2026
Construction is set to begin on a new retail-office development in central Auckland, which is targeting a 40% reduction in embodied carbon and 25% lower energy.
Opposition attacks Govt over fossil fuel phaseout backdown
2 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | Revelations that Resources Minister Shane Jones ruled out New Zealand signing up to a 'road map' away from fossil fuels at last year’s global climate summit show the National Party’s minor coalition partners’ undue influence over the Government, according to Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
Carbon trading schemes cut more emissions than carbon taxes, according to global study
20 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Carbon trading schemes are more effective than carbon taxes at reducing emissions, cutting fossil fuel use, and accelerating the shift to renewable energy, a global study has found.
Watts’s last stand: Simeon Brown takes energy portfolio
Today 11:45am
By Pattrick Smellie | Energy Minister Simon Watts has lost the portfolio to Cabinet fixer Simeon Brown in a reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this morning.
Environmental groups call for ETS reform
20 Feb 2026
Several environmental organisations are calling on political parties to make climate and biodiversity central to the 2026 election campaign, with reforming the Emissions Trading Scheme seen as a key priority.
Dairy farmers' lack of climate action 'even bleaker' than water inaction – Upton
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Government projections for cutting agricultural emissions are being undermined by low farmer uptake, with the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment warning the country is relying on “heroic” assumptions to meet its methane targets.
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.
Wellington planting nears one million trees
Mon 30 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Greater Wellington’s parks restoration programme will hit one million native trees this year, with the first dams to rewet peat wetlands in Queen Elizabeth Park now completed after a years-long effort to bring these ecosystems – and their carbon sequestering superpowers – back to life.
Lawyers complain to ombudsman over Govt failure to release LNG modelling
Wed 1 Apr 2026
By Liz Kivi | Lawyers for Climate Action has made a formal complaint to the Ombudsman over the Government’s failure to release information about its controversial decision to build a LNG import terminal.
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.”
FMA to ease conditions for green bond issues
Tue 31 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Green, social and sustainability-linked bonds will face lower disclosure requirements and regulatory costs under a class exemption newly granted by the Financial Markets Authority.
Five trees can’t offset a car: Lawyers accuse Mazda of greenwashing
9 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Lawyers for Climate Action NZ is taking Mazda to the Advertising Standards Authority over its claims that a tree-planting programme will offset vehicle emissions.
Govt missing opportunity to slash electricity prices, says expert
11 Feb 2026
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s fixation on eliminating the "dry-year risk margin" as a lever to reduce costs misses a much bigger opportunity to lower electricity prices, according to Christina Hood, head of Compass Climate.
NZ prepares to join ‘gold rush’ for white hydrogen
25 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | New Zealand may be close to commercialising the capture and use of naturally occurring ‘white’ hydrogen, with investment plans for developments in the Wairarapa region picking up pace in response to spiralling oil prices.
Media round-up
20 Mar 2026
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: Crown lawyers agree High Court could quash emissions plan if found unlawful; NZ is locked in 'disaster inertia'; and climate change is notably absent from new development laws.
Climate law change spanner in the works for Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry
19 Dec 2025
By Liz Kivi | The Government’s controversial changes to New Zealand’s legal framework for climate policy have thrown a spanner in the works for a long-running Waitangi Tribunal Inquiry into climate change.
Cleantech expo coming to Auckland
26 Mar 2026
New Zealand’s first national cleantech expo is set to bring together 30 innovators, in what organisers say is the country’s fastest growing area in the tech sector.
NZ First targets regional share of mining royalties
Mon 30 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand First has proposed returning 50% of mining royalties to regional communities, saying that too much of the value from resource extraction is currently flowing to Wellington.
Tuvalu prioritises climate change in agreement with NZ
Fri 27 Mar 2026
By Liz Kivi | New Zealand has pledged an additional $20 million to climate resilience work in Tuvalu, more than doubling Aotearoa's aid to the tiny island nation in the current financial year.
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.
Worst in a generation: Environmentalists slam fisheries reform bill
25 Mar 2026
Media release: Greenpeace | The Fisheries Amendment Bill, which will likely have its first reading in parliament this week, is being labelled the worst fisheries policy in a generation by environmental groups who are calling for it to be rejected to protect ocean health.
Govt process to change climate plan ‘fundamentally flawed’, says judge
18 Mar 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | The government’s 2024 changes to New Zealand’s first Emissions Reduction Plan was “as fundamentally flawed a process as I think I have ever seen”, the judge presiding in a case challenging climate change decision-making has said.
Kiwis overly optimistic about state of environment
27 Feb 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New research suggests many New Zealanders believe the environment is in better shape than it really is, with public perceptions often out of step with scientific evidence.
‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics
24 Feb 2026
Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?
Media round-up
Today 11:45am
In our round-up of climate coverage in local media: The widening political gap is deepening cracks in NZ's climate consensus, Christchurch recorded more than 30,000 extra cycling trips over two weeks, and is the energy crisis a renewable inflection point?
Activists occupy controversial gold drilling site
25 Mar 2026
By Max Frethey, Local Democracy Reporter | Opposition in Golden Bay to a controversial gold mine at Sams Creek has flared up over the weekend after several activists briefly occupied a drilling site.
China has a new competitor? Kazakhstan reveals huge rare Earth deposit that could power the next tech boom
25 Feb 2026
China’s grip on rare earths might finally see some competition, and the world is already taking notice.
Sci-tech prioritisation report is a joke that could cost NZ dearly, says NZ Association of Scientists
Today 11:45am
Media release: New Zealand Association of Scientists | The Prioritisation Report released yesterday by the Prime Minister’s Science Innovation and Technology Council makes a poor case for further cuts and changes to our research system.
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.
AI’s arrival complicates Big Tech climate goals, and some worry it’s locking in more fossil fuels
Today 11:45am
Six years ago, Google was confident that by 2030 it would power all operations with electricity generated from clean sources, including wind and solar power, and remove as much pollution as it produced. Today it calls those goals a “moonshot.” Microsoft says it’s still aiming to remove more carbon than it creates by 2030 but now describes the effort as “a marathon, not a sprint.”
Pacific climate response in question as NZ finance remains unclear
19 Dec 2025
By Shannon Morris-Williams | With New Zealand's $1.3 billion international climate finance commitment set to end with no clarity on what follows, the Auditor-General says oversight of that funding remains patchy and long-term outcomes are unclear.
Momentum speeds up for low-emissions heavy transport
Today 11:45am
By Shannon Morris-Williams | New Zealand’s heavy vehicle sector is starting to move toward lower-emissions alternatives, with electric vehicles now delivering cost savings as well as lower emissions.
Infrastructure plan calls for ‘predictable approach’ to electrifying economy
18 Feb 2026
Aotearoa’s first National Infrastructure Plan, introduced to Parliament yesterday, calls for "a predictable approach to electrifying the economy" as one of ten priorities for the next decade.
‘Stop burning fossil fuels’ pleads scientist as extreme rain causes floods yet again
Fri 27 Mar 2026
Northland and Auckland have again been lashed by heavy rain, with hundreds of people evacuated last night because of extensive flooding in the Far North, and some areas hit by more than a month's average rainfall in just 24 hours.
AI tool predicts wildfire danger faster than current systems
26 Mar 2026
Media release | A wildfire forecasting system powered by artificial intelligence could help detect dangerous fire conditions earlier and reduce the cost of wildfire response, according to new research from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury.
Record wind output helps shield the UK from worst of Iran war fallout
Wed 1 Apr 2026
Record output from wind farms has helped boost total clean power supplies in the United Kingdom to new highs so far in 2026, and allowed power firms to pare use of fossil fuels to multi-year lows.
