Biodiversity stories
Policy change, fuel resilience and green power projects are set to dominate infrastructure again as reform timelines tighten in 2023.
A parliamentary report says spending over GBP £2 billion a year on the environment is poorly linked to outcomes and lacks transparency.
Redwood could help New Zealand meet its 2050 net-zero target by storing more carbon than radiata pine on suitable sites.
A report warns New Zealand is missing harmful chemicals in the environment because monitoring is patchy and data on use is scarce.
Critics warn the draft overhaul could leave consenting slower and housebuilding harder, despite ministers promising a leaner planning regime.
Poorly planned tree planting could raise emissions and damage biodiversity unless projects protect existing forests and suit local conditions.
Plants could stop buffering a third of human emissions within 20 years, making climate change harder to slow as warming rises.
Residents could soon have 48 hours’ water supply in an earthquake as work starts on a GBP £68 million Wellington reservoir.
A new report warns rising temperatures, melting glaciers and sea levels could reshape the country unless emissions fall quickly.
Weak planning, funding and governance are leaving New Zealand unable to deliver the wider public outcomes it now says it wants.
Consumers faced an extra USD $80 million bill as the Electricity Authority found Meridian’s spilling also raised emissions and fossil fuel use.
The project will add 93 MW of capacity and offset 100,000 tonnes of CO2 a year as MainPower begins site works near Waipara.
New Zealand’s wage subsidy extension and infrastructure spending are meant to blunt soaring unemployment as the economy heads into recession.
Sector growth is set to lift jobs and exports as smaller Kiwi tech firms tap climate, finance and 4IR demand over the next decade.
They can lift air quality, insulation and wellbeing at home and in offices, while also trimming noise, heat and energy costs.
Pragmatic solutions are needed to cut waste, trim compliance costs and keep safety goals intact as prescriptive rules prove too rigid.
Too much blue light at night could disrupt sleep, harm wildlife and dim New Zealand's view of the stars, researchers warn.
Cities could cut treatment costs and recover water, nutrients and carbon by replacing end-of-pipe sanitation with nature-based systems.
New Zealand’s ability to track land degradation and biodiversity loss is being hampered by patchy national data, experts warn.
A new Statistics New Zealand report says natural resources remain central to growth, even as gaps in ecosystem data limit the picture.
