Hot Topic

Featured image: Cheaper solar power and electric vehicles are going to change our world over the next 5 years

Cheaper solar power and electric vehicles are going to change our world over the next 5 years

Gareth Renowden • Sep 17, 2017

This will be the best hour you’ll spend in front of a screen this week, I promise.     Tony Seba explains how the plunging costs of battery storage and solar power generation, coupled with the rise of electric vehicles and autonomous driving technologies are going to first disrupt and then transform both the transport and power industries worldwide, … Read More

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Featured image: What are we waiting for? the fantasy of carbon neutral growth of aviation emissions

What are we waiting for? the fantasy of carbon neutral growth of aviation emissions

Guest Work • Sep 30, 2016

In this guest post, the ‘stop flying’ Wellington lawyer Tom Bennion writes about the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) proposals for ‘carbon-neutral’ growth of greenhouse gas emissions from the fast-growing aviation industry. New Zealand parents often tell their children not to eat too many sweets. Our primary schools spend a lot of time talking about suitable … Read More

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Featured image: Is it in the spirit of the Paris Agreement to ratify it with more emissions?

Is it in the spirit of the Paris Agreement to ratify it with more emissions?

Mr February • Sep 24, 2016

Is the New Zealand Government’s plan to ratify the Paris Agreement in 2016 consistent with a two degrees Celsius (2C) carbon budget? Since the December 2015 Paris Agreement, the British climate scientist Kevin Anderson has given a couple of talks with the title Beyond Dangerous Climate Change: Does Paris Lock-out 2 Degrees? Anderson’s message is that although … Read More

Featured image: Moro bars and triple dips: Geoff Simmons fact checks Paula Bennett’s clean unit claim

Moro bars and triple dips: Geoff Simmons fact checks Paula Bennett’s clean unit claim

Simon Johnson • Sep 02, 2016

The Morgan Foundation’s Geoff Simmons has done a whiteboard Friday video on Minister for Climate Change Issues Paula Bennett’s claim that the surplus emission units are not tainted by the 97 million fake Russian and Ukrainian emission reduction units that the Climate Cheats report of April 2016 showed had been handed to the Government under the … Read More

Featured image: Tiwai Point uncertainty stalls NZ renewables

Tiwai Point uncertainty stalls NZ renewables

Simon Johnson • May 24, 2016

New Zealand Aluminium Smelter Limited is behind the Meridian/Genesis deal keeping the Huntly Thermal Power Station burning coal as the threat of closing the Tiwai Point smelter is stalling the construction of consented renewable energy projects. My last post at Hot Topic was about energy companies Meridian and Genesis doing a deal to keep the Huntly Thermal Power … Read More

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Featured image: When the world warms, the Arctic burns

When the world warms, the Arctic burns

Gareth Renowden • May 19, 2016

The Arctic has been ridiculously warm this last northern hemisphere winter. The sea ice maximum in March was the smallest in the record (by a small margin). April was another warm month in the far North — especially over Greenland — and May is continuing the warm streak. The sea ice is showing the effects of prolonged unusual … Read More

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Featured image: NZ’s emissions reductions go up in smoke as generators keep Huntly coal burning

NZ’s emissions reductions go up in smoke as generators keep Huntly coal burning

Simon Johnson • May 04, 2016

The decision to keep the Huntly coal thermal power station open for another four years is not only contrary to all New Zealand’s commitments and climate targets, it also sends the Ministry for the Environment’s projections of stabilising energy emissions to 2020 up in a cloud of coal smoke. We seem to have had an extra dose of announcements and … Read More