Guest Work • Aug 16, 2017 •
By Quentin Douglas Atkinson and Shaun Hendy A little over half the world’s population sees climate change as a serious problem (54% according to a 40-nation Pew Research survey). Coincidentally, roughly the same number identify as Christian or Muslim (55%). On the one hand, these statistics speak to the success of climate change communication. In just … Read More
Michael Reddell • Jul 13, 2017 •
No, that blank space wasn’t a mistake. It was the sum total of everything MBIE has written or commissioned (analysis, advice, research, or whatever), in the period since the start of 2014 on how the appropriate or optimal immigration policy for New Zealand might be affected by commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At the start … Read More
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