Blue carbon project targets climate gains
Tue 7 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | A new iwi-led research project exploring the climate potential of estuarine blue carbon has secured government backing, with hopes that scientists and Ngāti Rārua mapping wetland carbon storage at Te Tai Tapu could help anchor a national strategy for nature credits markets.
A matter of strategy
Tue 7 Apr 2026
COMMENT: Even on the brink of a global commodities crisis, the possibilities for climate action aren't hopelessly foreclosed. Strategy can turn our fortunes around, writes David Hall.
Bigger storms, more often: new study projects likely future rainfall impacts on NZ
Tue 7 Apr 2026
By Muhammad Fikri Sigid, Hamish Lewis, and Luke Harrington | In the aftermath of the latest bout of extreme rainfall across New Zealand’s upper North Island, there were some familar scenes. Submerged pastures. Silt carried by swollen rivers and piled against bridges. Floodwaters surrounding homes whose owners were forced to flee.
Watts’s last stand: Simeon Brown takes energy portfolio
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Pattrick Smellie | Energy Minister Simon Watts has lost the portfolio to Cabinet fixer Simeon Brown in a reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this morning.
Fonterra admits ‘100% grass-fed’ claim breached law in greenwashing row
Thu 2 Apr 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Fonterra has admitted its “100% New Zealand grass-fed” claims on Anchor butter were misleading and breached the law, settling a case brought by Greenpeace Aotearoa over packaging used between December 2023 and April 2025.
CARBON PRICE
Tue 7 Apr 2026
Exclusively for subscribers, the Carbon News NZU Index tracks daily movements in the compliance carbon market across multiple trading platforms.
Supply-side pressures and political uncertainty ahead for carbon market
Tue 7 Apr 2026
By Kristen Green | ANALYSIS: With failed auctions, a surge of new forestry registrations, and an election a few months away, the NZ ETS in 2026 will be subject to a mix of supply-side pressures and political uncertainty.
Economic contraction will impact carbon market
1 Apr 2026
By Liz Kivi | While higher fossil fuel prices strengthen the long-run economics of decarbonisation, the current fuel crisis won’t inspire near-term confidence in the carbon market, according to Lizzie Chambers of Carbon Match.
Carbon price: Ups and downs amid geopolitical uncertainty
26 Mar 2026
By Liz Kivi | After ups and downs in recent weeks, the carbon market again broke above the $40 mark this week, with questions around how the Middle East conflict will play out weighing on market confidence.
Carbon trading schemes cut more emissions than carbon taxes, according to global study
20 Mar 2026
By Shannon Morris-Williams | Carbon trading schemes are more effective than carbon taxes at reducing emissions, cutting fossil fuel use, and accelerating the shift to renewable energy, a global study has found.
Drive slower, work from home and ditch the tie: the world responds to Iran war energy crisis
Tue 7 Apr 2026
Shrinking fuel stocks and soaring prices are leading countries around the world to burn coal, ration fuel, shorten work weeks and tell citizens to stay at home.
Global climate panel faces strife, potential funding crunch
Tue 7 Apr 2026
Major reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are still on track, but procedural gridlock and a looming funding shortage hint at future problems.
Climate experts say spring is coming earlier. How will that affect agriculture and ecosystems?
Tue 7 Apr 2026
An earlier spring affects when migratory birds arrive, leaves emerge, and fruit ripens — among plants and animals that determine ecosystem health.
The vested interests lobbying for North Sea oil and gas expansion
Tue 7 Apr 2026
In the wake of the fossil fuel crisis created by Donald Trump’s war in Iran, a host of influential figures and groups in the UK have been calling not for the rapid rollout of renewable energy, but a growing reliance on oil and gas.
Transparency International US: Conflicts of interest in carbon markets are 'pervasive'
Tue 7 Apr 2026
In the absence of strong, independent decision-making and meaningful public oversight, carbon markets have developed in ways that consistently fail to deliver tangible, additional, or permanent emissions reductions.
Fast-track approved project could deliver NZ’s largest wind farm
Tue 7 Apr 2026
Media release: New Zealand Government |Fast-track approval has been granted for New Zealand’s largest wind farm project.
CLIMATE CALENDAR
Tue 7 Apr 2026
The Carbon News calendar of talks, events, conferences, consultations, and petitions related to climate change.
Sci-tech prioritisation report is a joke that could cost NZ dearly, says NZ Association of Scientists
Thu 2 Apr 2026
Media release: New Zealand Association of Scientists | The Prioritisation Report released yesterday by the Prime Minister’s Science Innovation and Technology Council makes a poor case for further cuts and changes to our research system.
Fifty years of observations, no reversal of glacier climate damage
31 Mar 2026
Media release: Earth Sciences New Zealand | Fifty years on from the first aerial survey of our Southern Alps glaciers, late snow and variable summer weather delivered a temporary reprieve from rapid ice loss, says Earth Sciences New Zealand.
Open letter: NZ needs an essential use allocation plan for fuel – now
30 Mar 2026
Wise Response Society | We are writing to make one demand: the government must publish a quantified, ranked essential use allocation plan for fuel - with litres-per-day allocations, tied to actual onshore stock levels and realistic resupply assumptions.
