Helen Clark

Things are gonna change (the morning after)

by Gareth November 10, 2008

On the morning after I was more interested in the rugby than agonising over the entrails of Saturday night’s election result, but today it’s worth traversing what new Zealand’s new political landscape might bring for climate policy. For the wider picture, I recommend Russell Brown’s take at Hard News and Gordon Campbell’s at Scoop; they [...]

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Take care the road you choose

by Gareth November 6, 2008

Now that one election’s out of the way, (a good result: Obama’s committed to 80 percent reductions by 2050) time to focus on what’s happening in New Zealand. I’ve promised several times to offer an analysis of the major parties offerings on climate change and emissions reductions, but I’ve been pre-empted by a very useful [...]

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No matter who you vote for the government always gets in

by Gareth September 13, 2008

We have an election date – November 8th – and an Emissions Trading Scheme on the statute books. The next eight weeks are going to be fascinating, probably messy, and certainly noisy. Hot Topic will be watching the campaigns, focussing on what the parties have to say about climate change, climate policy and the ETS. [...]

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Tangled up in blue

by Gareth May 19, 2008

John Key has announced that National will not support the Emissions Trading Scheme legislation in its current form [Stuff]. When the select committee reports back to parliament next month, National will vote against a second reading. The reactions are as you might expect: from praise at Kiwiblog to righteous indignation at No Right Turn. Hot [...]

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So it goes

by Gareth May 6, 2008

The cacophony of lobbying around the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), coupled with high petrol prices, has prompted the government to announce a couple of changes to the scheme. Liquid fuels were supposed to enter the ETS in 2009, but this has now been delayed to 2011, and the phase out of the free allocation [...]

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The midweek omnibus: #37 (Putney to Peckham)

by Gareth January 30, 2008

There’s been some good news, and not too much bad news. Let’s start with some good NZ news. The Hillary Institute of International Leadership, launched in Antarctica a year ago with Sir Ed in attendance, has announced that “Leadership in….Climate Change Solutions will be the topic for the Institute’s first four year work-cycle, 2008-2012.” The [...]

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Blues from an airplane

by Gareth January 4, 2008

Two Otago University physicists, Inga Smith and Craig Rodger, have calculated the CO2 equivalent emissions generated by international tourist visits to NZ, and find that in 2005 the return flights accounted for almost 8 million tonnes of CO2e – about the same as emissions by the country’s entire power sector – around 10 percent of [...]

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Big emitters bite back

by Gareth October 24, 2007

NZ’s big greenhouse gas emitters have begun a push back against the government’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and energy strategy. Last week an industry group including the Greenhouse Policy Coalition, Federated Farmers, the Major Electricity Users Group, Business Roundtable, the Chambers Of Commerce, and others wrote to Helen Clark warning that, as Colin Espiner in [...]

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Biofuels to fly, and other stories

by Gareth October 2, 2007

Air New Zealand is carefully positioning itself as a climate-friendly airline with its latest announcement that it is to trial biofuels in a 747 flight from Auckland in the next couple of years. Working with Boeing, Air NZ will be part of the first commercial trial of biofuel, in a Rolls-Royce-powered jumbo in the next [...]

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Emissions plan due Thursday

by Gareth September 17, 2007

The government’s emissions trading scheme will be announced on Thursday. The Herald reports: Helen Clark indicated farmers would get a reprieve on when they would join in because of the difficulties in reducing methane emissions from stock. Bringing various industries into the scheme would be staggered. “I don’t want to reveal the sequence, but clearly [...]

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