National

Bill English’s weasel words on weather, climate and drought

by Gareth March 14, 2013

Occasionally — but only occasionally — the political pantomime that is parliamentary question time throws up something interesting. Yesterday, NZ’s deputy prime minister Bill English managed to dig himself into a drought-ridden hole, only to emerge looking like a climate denier. Green Party co-leader Russel Norman tried to get English to expand on his earlier [...]

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New Zealand’s double dealing and special pleading over Kyoto 2: part the first

by Mr February December 20, 2012

Is Tim Groser a Kyoto pariah? Or a Kyoto visonary? A global emissions reduction emissary or is he tar-sanded with a Canadian brush? I try to make sense of New Zealand’s double dealing and special pleading over the Kyoto Protocol second commitment period and the Doha climate change talks hooha. I am very confused about [...]

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NZ climate policy shambles, and other summer reading

by Gareth December 17, 2012

It’s summer down south, and New Zealand’s politicians have embarked on their summer break. It’s summer in Waipara too, and with yesterday topping 30ºC and today heading in the same direction, your blogger has immediate climate concerns of an irrigation and vine management nature to attend to. So, with apologies for what may turn out [...]

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Don’t worry Kyoto (National’s Only Looking Out For Its Friends)

by Gareth November 12, 2012

The New Zealand government has announced that the country will not join the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (CP2), but will instead make voluntary commitments within the Kyoto framework [Herald, NBR]. Climate change minister Tim Groser presented this move as: …aligning [NZ's] climate change efforts with developed and developing countries which collectively are [...]

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John Key’s fossilised vision for NZ

by Bryan Walker July 7, 2012

One wearies of lamenting the government’s inability to view proposed paths of economic development from the perspective of climate change. But as they continue to trumpet economic solutions which are inimical to facing the challenge of global warming there is little option but to keep reiterating that they need to take a longer term view. [...]

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NZ govt dumps national environmental standard for sea level rise

by Gareth May 8, 2012

The New Zealand government has ordered officials at the Ministry of Environment to stop work on the development of a national environmental standard (NES) on sea level rise, enquiries by the Science Media Centre have revealed. Lack of an NES for future sea level increases will force each local authority to make up its own [...]

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Weakened NZ ETS not responsible economic management

by Bryan Walker April 13, 2012

Tim Groser, the new Minister for Climate Change Issues, is adamant in his defence of the intention to further delay bringing the agricultural sector into the Emissions Trading Scheme beyond the current date of 2015 unless there are adequate abatement options open to them by then and unless other countries step up to the mark [...]

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NZ ETS to be watered down (again), but emissions news good

by Gareth April 12, 2012

New Zealand’s new Minister for Climate Change Issues and chief climate negotiator, Tim Groser, yesterday announced the government’s intended changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme following last years ETS Review. There will be a limited period for consultation (to May 11) on the proposals before legislation is put before Parliament. The consultation document (PDF) and [...]

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Ignoring the future? Sea level rise and NZ’s planning guidelines

by Bryan Walker April 2, 2012

A question-time exchange in the New Zealand Parliament a few days ago seemed worth drawing to the attention of Hot Topic’s readers. Green MP Kennedy Graham (pictured) put this question to the Minister for Climate Change Issues: Is he concerned by a recent report of an international team of scientists that, even with a two [...]

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Doublethink: doubleplus ungood

by Bryan Walker December 24, 2011

What do New Zealand government members really think about the chasm between their claims on the one hand to be addressing climate change and their insistence on the other that we must take every opportunity to expand our fossil fuel mining industry? I listened to a recent Radio New Zealand interview with Tim Groser, the [...]

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