Eric Crampton • Aug 13, 2018 •
The Ministry for the Environment’s consultation document on banning plastic bags is out. The key table, or at least the most interesting table, is in the appendix. It shows, from a Danish study, the number of times a reusable shopping bag would have to be reused to have less environmental impact than current disposable bags. Source: Ministry for … Read More
Michael Reddell • Apr 20, 2018 •
That was the title of a speech David Parker gave a couple of weeks ago. Parker is, as you will recall, a man wearing many hats: Minister for the Environment, Associate Minister of Finance, Minister for Trade and Export Growth, and Attorney-General. Since he was speaking to a seminar organised by the Resource Management Law Association, this speech looked … 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
John Kerr • Jul 18, 2016 •
The Government funds millions of dollars’ worth of conservation and environment research each year – and it needs your help to make sure that research is heading in the right direction. A planned conservation and environment science ‘roadmap’ will lay out the Government’s research priorities of for the next 20 years. The Department of Conservation (DOC) and Ministry for the Environment (MfE) have jointly … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Dec 10, 2015 •
Not long ago I wrote about the call for consultation on a proposal to change the regulations around what are not genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in New Zealand. This was written in the absence of two useful sources of context: the options presented by the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) the consultation for … Read More
Mr February • Nov 28, 2012 •
This week the Ministry for the Environment is consulting and seeking submissions on a proposal to ban some of the more ‘Mickey Mouse’ international carbon credits from the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme. Apparently this is because Climate Change Minister Tim Groser “wants to maintain the integrity of the ETS” (New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme). […] … Read More