Michael Reddell • Jun 21, 2017 •
A month or so ago I ran a couple of posts on New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions in international context. Readers may recall that New Zealand now has the second highest emissions per unit of GDP of any OECD country, having moved up from sixth in 1990. As part of the Paris climate change accord process, New … Read More
Michael Reddell • May 28, 2017 •
After my post the other day, I pricked up my ears when I heard on the radio that new data on greenhouse gas emissions had been released, and at the same time heard various industry lobby groups calling for more government support (money or regulation”) for this, that or the other mitigating measure. It is the costs of meeting … Read More
Michael Reddell • May 24, 2017 •
I’ve never had that much interest in climate change. Perhaps it comes from living in Wellington. If average local temperatures were a couple of degrees warmer here most people would be quite happy. And as successive earthquakes seem to have the South Island pushing under the North Island, raising the land levels around here – you can … Read More
John Kerr • May 23, 2017 •
Children alive today will find themselves living in a totally different climate in the future, should greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, warns a new study. Climate change does what it says on the tin – it changes the climate. The question of when and where we will start to notice those changes is tackled in a new, Kiwi-led study published … Read More
John Kerr • Oct 19, 2016 •
New Zealanders need to work together to tackle the “complex problem of the biological greenhouse gases from agriculture,” warns the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in a new report. The report Climate change and agriculture: Understanding the biological greenhouse gases, released today, aims to tease out various issues in the fraught area of biological emissions and signpost solutions. “In a way, my report … Read More
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
Lynley Hargreaves • Jun 21, 2016 •
One of the striking things for University of Waikato law Professor Barry Barton, while working on the Royal Society of New Zealand report Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy for New Zealand, was how often his scientific colleagues had to tell him they didn’t have necessary data on New Zealand’s carbon emissions options. Without that information, we don’t know … Read More
Eric Crampton • Apr 18, 2016 •
I hadn’t quite understood New Zealand’s carbon emissions trading scheme before I moved to Wellington. The thing seemed a little dodgy with a fair bit of reliance on dubious foreign credits. But then the genius of the thing was explained to me. I’ve not looked at it properly myself, but the story is interesting, and seems plausible. It goes something … Read More
Cindy Baxter • Dec 11, 2015 •
One of the most beautiful things I saw on my facebook feed last week were some angels at Republique, the scene of the attacks last month. Those same angels appeared at the entrance to the UN zone at the climate talks out at Le Bourget the other day as we walked into the centre. Today it was the Greenpeace polar bear, … Read More
Peter Griffin • Dec 09, 2015 •
The Climate Action Tracker, which involves five independent research organisations analysing the emissions reduction targets of the nations represented at COP21 in Paris has totted up the sums now that 158 climate pledges have been officially tabled. The upshot is that the pledges will result in 2.7 degrees Celsius of temperature rise in 2100, if the governments all met their … Read More