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The same supervolcano that provides one of the country’s bigger sources of catastrophic risk could well prove part of the answer to one of the country’s bigger problems on the path to 2050. It also helps to illustrate one of the problems in New Zealand’s approach to planning for net zero. Read more

There is no chance it is deliberate. Deliberateness would require more coordination than government is able to manage these days. Read more

One bit of the Climate Commission’s draft advice, released in March, seemed particularly strange. The Commission worried that a surge in forest planting over the coming years would bring about a collapse in ETS prices in the 2030s and put New Zealand’s net zero commitments beyond 2050 at risk. Read more

After spending an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out whether paying NZ Steel an enormous amount of money to install a new electric furnace made any kind of sense, I have finally come to a conclusion. If the subsidy does make sense, it would indicate severe problems in how industrial allocations have been handled. Read more

Federated Farmers and Beef & Lamb New Zealand have stepped-up their campaigns against carbon forestry. Federated Farmers objected to a Dutch company’s purchase of two sheep and beef farms for tree-planting, arguing it would mean fewer jobs and people in rural towns. Read more

Falling carbon prices have the Finance Minister seeking advice on the Emissions Trading Scheme. The ETS can and should be bulletproof. Read more

This month, Environment Minister David Parker’s Resource Management Act reforms will be consigned to the dustbin of history. Provided, that is, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is listening. Read more