Topics tagged with 'Transport'
Labour vows to act on agriculture by 2016
25 Aug 2014
There is bad news for farmers, and good and bad news for industrial emitters under Labour’s climate change policy, released yesterday.
Cathay Pacific plugs into biofuel producer
18 Aug 2014
Cathay Pacific Airways is investing in American sustainable biofuel company Fulcrum Bioenergy as part of a drive to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020.
Scientists see problems with tar sand pipeline
18 Aug 2014
European researchers say a 2000-mile pipeline designed to carry controversial tar sands oil from Canada to the southern US may lead to much more pollution than previously calculated.
Who has the courage to take on transport taboos?
18 Aug 2014
Transportation continues to generate a large proportion of emissions worldwide, even as emissions from other areas of the economy fall.
Airports super-inefficient, says emissions study
11 Aug 2014
Airports are disastrously inefficient buildings which belch greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and contribute hugely to climate change, a European study has found.
Smartphone could be way of beating the traffic jam
4 Aug 2014
Forward-thinking Finland plans to change the way Europe goes about urban travel using a novel system, based on a smartphone app, to help people to get the most out of public transport.
Europe could pay huge climate price, says report
18 Jul 2014
A failure to act to reduce the impacts of climate change could cost Europe dear in lives lost and economic damage, according to a European Commission study.
Paris gears up pay-for-pedal plan to boost the bicycle
18 Jul 2014
The French Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Energy Development has launched a trial scheme where commuters are paid to cycle to work.
Billions in money pot could unlock clean energy deal
11 Jul 2014
Europe’s structural funding cash pool for energy efficiency and renewables projects has soared by 40 per cent to an estimated $NZ46 billion and could be used to broker a 2030 clean energy targets deal with cost-concerned east European states, EurActiv reports.
Keen, green Penang shows us how it's done
4 Jul 2014
By editor ADELIA HALLETT.- The Malaysian island state of Penang is out to topple New Zealand from its clean-green throne.
Sorry, say most Britons, but electric cars are not for us
4 Jul 2014
The electric car trend is still to take off, with drivers largely put off by up-front costs, according to a survey by Britain's Department for Transport.
Progress must be climate-smart, says World Bank
27 Jun 2014
Government policies that improve energy efficiency and public transport could increase global economic output by more than $1.8 trillion per year, says the World Bank.
Climate crisis puts pressure on King Corn
27 Jun 2014
One-third of cropland in the US is devoted to corn. It produces nearly 40 per cent of the world’s corn, and a record harvest last year was valued at nearly $70 billion.
The many reasons why wood is the way to go
27 Jun 2014
By CHAD OLIVER, Professor of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Director of the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry, Yale University.- Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it would be better if we built buildings from wood than from concrete, brick, aluminium and steel.
Capital to switch off trolley buses
27 Jun 2014
Wellington Regional Council says its new transport plan will get up to 20 per cent more people out of cars and on to public transport.
Nat's transport plan a fantasy, say Greens
20 Jun 2014
National's transport budget for the next decade is a fantasy plan that pretends climate change doesn’t exist and locks New Zealanders into their cars for the next 50 years, the Green Party says.
Finns launch sustainable business tools
20 Jun 2014
The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has launched a suite of new tools to help manufacturers and farmers develop economically, environmentally and sociallay sustainable business models.
Innovators plan a big shift for business
13 Jun 2014
Leading international business innovators and entrepreneurs will gather in Auckland in September for the launch of a new global business innovation campaign in New Zealand.
Why we need clear emissions-reduction reporting
13 Jun 2014
STEPHEN KNIGHT-LENIHAN, JULIA HARKER and PRUE TAYLOR argue for transparent emissions-reduction reporting, in the same way that we report on the share market and exchange rates.
EU emissions lowest on record
6 Jun 2014
The European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 19.2 per cent compared with 1990s levels, according to the European Environment Agency.
Wellington mayor gets hands-on with China's electric buses
6 Jun 2014
Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown has taken the wheel of an electric bus.
EU members abandon new-energy plans
6 Jun 2014
Most EU member states are virtually abandoning plans to develop new energy and fuel saving policies that could save the public money and reduce dependency on Russian gas, thanks to weak European climate targets that are likely to be overshot, according to new analysis.
Greens: Climate change biggest issue world has faced
3 Jun 2014
"They used to call climate change the biggest issue of our time; more recently, I've heard it described as the biggest issue of all time." Green Party co-leader RUSSEL NORMAN on why his party will replace the Emissions Trading Scheme with a carbon tax:
Climate change? She'll be right, says Shell
30 May 2014
Shell, the world’s largest oil company, believes that governments will not damage its business by taking rapid action on climate change, and says all its oil reserves will be needed and sold at a profit.
Look, ma, no hands ... Google car could be a threat, says GM
30 May 2014
Google dropped its driverless car on the motor world this week and the concept immediately won praise from a leading industry executive.
Big 10 food companies pollute as much as some countries
23 May 2014
The 10 largest food and beverage companies, if combined, would be the 25th most polluting country in the world, according to a report by Oxfam.
Great potential, but Australia needs to get a move on
23 May 2014
There is an instinctive fear that overhauling the parts of our economies that emit greenhouse gases would spell economic doom and gloom.
Methane hydtrates are a whole new world
23 May 2014
Last year, Japanese scientists announced they had for the first time extracted gas from offshore deposits of methane hydrate, an ice-like substance made of natural gas trapped inside water crystals.
Southland gets nod for wood-fuel hub
9 May 2014
Southland is to become a supply hub for a wood-fuel industry, it has just been announced.
Why Australia has something to worry about
9 May 2014
The state of Australia’s environment is a real worry – the report cards exist to prove it.
Our cities enveloped in dirty air, says report
9 May 2014
Many of the world’s cities are “enveloped in dirty air” that is dangerous to breathe, says the United Nations.
Europe reports fall in CO2 emissions from energy use
9 May 2014
The carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion decreased by 2.5 per cent across the European Union last year, according to early estimates published this week.
Europe adopts private-public partnerships
9 May 2014
The roll out of a series of public private partnerships worth up to €22 billion over the next seven years has been approved by the European Council.
Plastics industry on right track, says EU
2 May 2014
As the European Commission prepares to review the EU’s waste targets, the plastics industry, a symbol of the EU’s ‘throw-away society’, is one of the focal points in discussions on resource efficiency.
It's time to put non-edible biomass to work
2 May 2014
Bioenergy and biofuels have an important role to play in lowering the use of carbon-intensive fossil fuels – a point underscored by the IPCC report which confirmed the need for further research to improve such technology. By ADAM LEE, Professor of Sustainable Chemistry, and KAREN WILSON, Professor of Catalysis and Research Director, of Aston University, Birmingham.
Aussie Greens gain, but the rest is much the same
24 Apr 2014
The theme of the past 30 days – much like the past 12 months – has been politics, with market focus squarely on the Western Australia Senate election re-run on April 5 and the implications for the balance of power in the new Senate from July 1, says market analyst Reputex.
Climate policy and the need for clarity and certainty
24 Apr 2014
Cutting emissions now makes business sense for industry, writes TAMARYN NAPP, a research associate at Imperial College, London.
On yer bike ... Copenhagen shows the way for European cities
17 Apr 2014
More than 76,600 people could become employed by green transportation businesses, and 10,000 lives would be saved, if major European cities adopted Copenhagen's bicycle sharing system, says a new report.
Our emissions up ... thanks to cars and cows
11 Apr 2014
New Zealanders’ love affair with cars and cows has pushed our greenhouse gas emissions up by 25 per cent.
Alpha Coal ruling breaks new ground for mining
11 Apr 2014
By MATHEW CURRELL.- This week's court ruling on the future of the $A6.4 billion Alpha coal project in Queensland - set to be one of the biggest coal mines in the world - is of major significance for how mining projects are assessed in Australia.
How sail is catching up with the fossil-fuel ships
11 Apr 2014
Ship transport is energy efficient, but it is also a significant source of emissions because of the globalised world huge transportation needs. In large measure, these vessels are powered with high-sulphur fossil fuels.
Wooden skyscrapers cool idea in a warming world
11 Apr 2014
By TIM RADFORD.- US scientists have a new green solution to urban construction: chop down trees and use the wood for buildings.
Airlines wrestle with demands of climate change
11 Apr 2014
By LYNETTE DRAY.- Although aviation emissions contribute only 3 to 5 per cent of the total impact on the planet’s climate, this is steadily growing and is a surprisingly intractable problem to solve.
Z Energy goes it alone with $21 million biodiesel plant to supply local market
4 Apr 2014
A commercial-scale biodiesel project nearly stymied by the withdrawal of Government support is to go ahead.
Brm, brm ...move over, brick, there's a streamliner coming through
28 Mar 2014
By KIERAN COOKE.- The European Parliament has voted in favour of changing the design of goods lorries throughout the EU - from their present brick shape to a more streamlined-looking vehicle.
Hi-tech's a big job and Britain is doing it well
28 Mar 2014
BRITISH hi-tech engineering is more successful than you think, says JIM PLATTS, lecturer in manufacturing engineering at Cambridge University.
Foreign airlines should pay, say Europe lawmakers
21 Mar 2014
Flights to and from Europe should not be exempted from Europe’s emissions trading scheme, the Environment and Public Health Committee of the European Parliament says.
Why business needs to know climate change laws
21 Mar 2014
The number of climate change laws on the statue books of the world’s leading economies grew from less than 40 in 1997 to almost 500 at the end of 2013 SAM FRANKHAUSER, co-director of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, reports:
Our cities need attention, say planners
21 Mar 2014
More collaboration is needed to deal with the country’s burgeoning urban growth issues, says a new report by the New Zealand Planning Institute.
Europe must get serious about cutting back oil
7 Mar 2014
By ALEX KIRBY, London.- Europe has the technology and the raw material to make a big cut in the amount of oil its transport uses, researchers say - but it will fail to reap the benefits on offer unless the European Union comes up with more radical policies.
Farm-level emissions cuts possible, but almost everything stands in the way
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Wetlands and biodiversity at risk as mining rules loosen: Greenpeace
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
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?
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.
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.
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'.
