The Government is consulting on four options for a better Emissions Trading Scheme, yet University of Otago Dr Sebastian Gehricke points out two of them will not even achieve New Zealand’s climate goals while the other two are not much better Four options for ETS reform are on the table, to avoid scenarios where it is cheaper for polluters to buy carbon credits – encouraging excessive tree planting – than to reduce their emissions. Continue →

Rebuilding some flood-damaged homes makes no sense, given the high risk of flooding in the future, some experts say Simply put, managed retreat represents land use change; relocating people, assets, activities, and taonga, where appropriate, from dangerous locations. Continue →

Roughly a week after clean-up efforts began from a record-smashing deluge across the North Island, a second storm in the form of Cyclone Gabrielle is raising questions around community resilience, water infrastructure, and our wider environment Cascading natural hazard events fuelled by climate change are the new norm for Auckland, Massey University Professor Christine Kenney says. Continue →

Auckland has recorded more than 769% of its rainfall in a normal January, but is this something we should have seen coming? Continue →

Changes to the Crown Minerals Act, intended to strengthen its environmental focus, is being criticised by a mining industry body as doing the exact opposite The Crown Minerals Act (CMA) will no longer actively “promote” prospecting, exploration, and mining of Crown-owned minerals. Continue →

The decision to fund poor and vulnerable nations that are experiencing some of the worst effects of a changing climate, while welcome, is being criticised as a distraction from the lack of outcomes at the annual UN Climate Change Conference The Conference of the Parties failed to make progress in Egypt around key goals of reducing emissions to hold the world’s temperatures at 1.5 degrees or closing the funding gap to support the world’s poorest nations to adapt to extreme weather and reduce emissions, though University of Canterbury Professor Bronwyn Hayward says the establishment of a Loss and Damage fund is a significant win. Continue →

The lack of any mention of technology in the government’s emission reduction plan was acknowledged by climate change minister James Minister Shaw as an oversight, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says The idea that New Zealand can reach its emissions targets without relying heavily on technology and innovation has always struck the tech ecosystem as strange. Continue →

The Government spends over $2 billion each year on the environment – a report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment explores how we are affecting the environment and whether the actions we are taking to improve it are working The report completes a cycle of work the Commissioner has undertaken over five years.  Continue →

Remarkable high-resolution results in the detection of the recent Wellington earthquake could mean a change in the way we prepare for and respond to seismic events FiberSense’s DigitalSeismic sensing service that operates on fibre optic telecoms cables in Wellington detected a range of activity from the earthquake centred on the Cook Strait last week. Continue →

Resource management reform will help make sure New Zealand has the right infrastructure and development in the right place, while protecting and restoring our environment, Minister for the Environment David Parker says Good quality infrastructure was necessary for good urban development, reducing emissions and managing natural hazard and climate change risks. Continue →

The Government’s plan to adapt to rising sea levels, hotter temperatures and more extreme weather events is being described by experts as insufficient We are going see the impacts of climate change on our communities and the way we live our lives, Climate Change Minister James Shaw says. Continue →

The UK High Court has ruled that the British government’s Net Zero Strategy breaches the Climate Change Act 2008. Continue →

The endorsement of an AT transport plan and the resulting court case proves Auckland Council’s climate plan is not worth the paper it is printed on Auckland Council was involved in a legal case against All Aboard Aotearoa (AAA), which asked for a judicial review of the Council Planning Committee’s decision to endorse Auckland Transport’s Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP). Continue →

The Climate Change Commission’s advice on how agricultural emissions should be taxed is being criticised as a way to offset emissions produced by other sectors A farm-level split-gas levy has been recommended as an alternative way to tax agricultural emissions outside of the emissions trading scheme. Continue →

Radiata pine forests are commonly used in New Zealand to help remove CO₂ from the atmosphere, however, the tree’s growth rate and ability to sequester carbon drops after 30 years Carbon uptake by rapid planting of new forests is currently the only way New Zealand has to remove CO2 from the atmosphere at the speed required to meet our net-zero target by 2050. Continue →

Nearly 200 countries have passed a resolution at the United Nations to address the full lifecycle of plastic, including production, design and disposal Water New Zealand has welcomed the global agreement to develop a legally-binding treaty by 2024 to tackle plastic pollution. Continue →

NIWA statistics report 2021 as the warmest year since records began and despite concern about climate change, most New Zealanders do not think it can be avoided, Horizon Research finds Concern about climate change is at its highest for nearly a decade, yet 78% of Kiwis don’t believe enough will be done in the next 10 years to avoid damaging temperature rises. Continue →

The official COP26 outcome – the 10-page Glasgow Pact, outlining non-binding ambitions with no tangible milestones or deadlines, is not a prescriptive roadmap for infrastructure, but it does re-affirm four key infrastructure related themes to deliver on a net zero future Sadek Wahba, Chairman and Managing Partner of I Squared Capital – Global Infrastructure Hub The relationship between sustainable and resilient infrastructure and climate mitigation is clear. Continue →

A highly ambitious pledge to cut emissions could cripple New Zealand’s agricultural sector and see billions of taxpayer dollars spent overseas It is unclear how New Zealand will meet its new emissions targets without investing heavily into international carbon markets. Continue →

In the past year alone, Canterbury, Westport, Napier, Taranaki and now Auckland have been hit with severe floods, something experts say will only become more common as global warming starts to take effect Over 200mm of rain fell in some areas of Auckland overnight this week, causing fifty homes to be evacuated, with people trapped, and cars being swept away due to flooding. Continue →