Links to topical New Zealand news items:
January 2026
19/01/2025: Verity Johnson, Stuff.co.nz “It’s hard to care about climate change when you’re broke”
15/01/2026: Salinger J et al (A Climate Club NZ Science Panel Report). “New Zealand Temperature Tracker 2025”
December 2025
17/12/2025: MfE publishes a document about Carbon Storage in NZ - “A Carbon Storage regime - regulating the climate change and environmental effects of Carbon Storage in New Zealand” From the document “The next step is developing legislation to provide for the carbon storage aspects of any future CCS projects. Subject to the Government’s 2026 legislative priorities, the Minister of Climate Change intends to introduce a Bill in 2026. The select committee process will provide opportunities for formal engagement once the Bill is introduced.”
16/12/2025: Kate Newton, “Climate change could claim nearly all of NZ's glaciers, research shows”
09/12/2025: MfE publishes the Government Response to the Climate Change Commission Report: The 2050 Target Review Recommendations - and dismisses them [ME 1934]
09/12/2025: The Climate Change Commission has published “Ā Te Taitokerau urutau i ngā āhuarangi: Responding to a changing climate in Te Taitokerau/Northland” which aims ”to reflect what the Commission heard from people living in the region in March 2025 “about how climate change is affecting the region, and what people are doing in response.” Earlier studies by the Commission focused on Wairoa, South Dunedin and Westport.
October 2025
15/10/2025: MfE publishes the Government Response to the Climate Change Commission: Monitoring Report: Emissions Reduction [ME 1924]
16/09/2025: MfE publishes the National Adaptation Framework [Reference INFO1350]
8/10/2025: Renwick J et al. “Climate change is harming health: The need for urgent action” Public Health Communication centre Aoteaoroa
September 2025
04/09/2025: Jack McDonald , “Politicians let off the hook for climate inaction”, The Post,
04/09/2025: Kirsty Johnston, “The great methane debate explained” Radio NZ
OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO ME
Kirsty Johnstone, Radio NZ, 19th August 2025 “How Jacinda Ardern’s ‘groundbreaking’ climate law has become ‘a shell’”
August 2025
19/98/2025: Ministry for the Environment announces no progress International treaty on plastic pollution update
14/08/2025: Ministry for the Environment, “Funding to strengthen Māori climate resilience and create economic benefits”
July 2025
A series of news articles about climate change adaptation in New Zealand:
25/07/2025: The Climate Change Commission has published their second monitoring report on New Zealand’s emissions reductions - their assessment of progress towards meeting Aotearoa New Zealand’s emissions budgets and the 2050 target.
24/07/2025: Jamie Tahana, “UN's highest court finds countries can be held legally responsible for emissions” RNZ Pacific. The link to the International Court of Justice document can be found here
22/07/2025: Eloise Gibson, “Can households really assess their own climate risk?” RadioNZ
21/07/2025: Eloise Gibson, “Flood victims will not be on their own, says chair of contentious report”, RadioNZ
18/07/2025: Alexia Russell, “Paying for the Reality of Climate Change” Radio NZ
15/07/2025: Gordon Campbell “On Ducking the Costs of Climate Change” Scoop.co.nz
14/07/2025: David Hill, “As the sea level rises who will pay? Councils seek answers”, RadioNZ
14/07/2025: Morning Report, “Long-term changes needed to bailouts, natural disaster responses - Christopher Luxon”, RadioNZ
10/07/2025: Kate Newton, “No future climate adaptation assistance would leave NZers ‘on their own - expert”, RadioNZ
10/07/2025: Lilian Hanly, “Homeowners warned weather-related buyouts may cease in 20 years” Checkpoint, RadioNZ
09/07/2025:L Kate Newton, “No climate change buyouts in future, expert group tells government” RadioNZ
09/07/2025: Ministry for the Environment, “A proposed approach for New Zealand’s adaptation framework” [The Independent Reference Group on Climate Adaptation] July 2025, Publication CR617
28 May 2025
The Ministry for the Environment has published Strengthening ETS Market Governance
16 May 2025
The Ministry for the Environment has published the Measuring Emissions Guide 2025 that includes updates to some emission factors.
23 April 2025
The Climate Change Commision has published its annual advice to the Government on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) unit settings
16 April 2025
Ipsos New Zealand has released the findings of a new 32-country study People and Climate Change Report 2025 that includes perceptions of the risks facing us from the climate crisis as well as where the responsibility for greater action lies.
15 April 2025
The Ministry for the Environment has published the 2023 GHG Inventory
8 April 2025
The Ministry for the Environment has published Our Environment 2025, a three-yearly report, prepared in conjunction with StatsNZ, on the state of the environment.
7 April 2025
An Eloise Gibson item on RNZ News about the modelling underlying the government’s plan to acheive net zero by 2050 (and potentially by 2044). The modelling shows that it would entail 280,000ha of new pine trees being planted on public land.
28 March 2025
The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal, by Lawyers for Climate Action NZ Inc (LCANZI) who applied in the High Court for a judicial review of advice given by the Climate Change Commission to the Minister of Climate Change.
23 March 2025
An Eloise Gibson item on RNZ News about New Zealand’s international climate targets and do we have to meet them
7 March 2025
The New Zealand Government’s waste and resource efficiency strategy
17 February 2025
30 January 2025
The Government has announced the country’s second international climate target [NDC2] under the Paris Agreement for the period 2031 - 35.
29 January 2025