Science Media Centre

Burning the Earth’s remaining fossil fuels could lead to a bigger global temperature increase than expected, a new study finds. If we were to use up all of our planet’s fossil fuel resources, we’d increase the global average temperature by about 8°C globally by 2300, Canadian scientists report in Nature Climate Change. The scientists say […]

There are numerous ways New Zealand can tackle climate change, says a new report, but we must act now. The Royal Society of New Zealand’s climate mitigation report, launched this morning, outlines how New Zealand can shift to a low-carbon economy, reducing greenhouse gas emission across a range of sectors, including: heat supply electricity supply […]

After two week of negotiations more than 190 countries have agreed to to an international deal to tackle climate change. The agreement, which was released in the early hours of Sunday morning (NZT), sets the goal of limiting the world’s rise in average temperature to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts […]

As the COP21 climate negotiations gather pace in Paris, new research suggests global carbon emissions are projected to fall in 2015. This drop in emissions is a turnaround from the more than 2 per cent growth seen on average for the previous decade. It also comes at a time when the world is experiencing global […]

The Australian federal government announced today its plans to cut carbon emissions by between 26 and 28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030. The announced target comes ahead of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in December 2015. In preparation for creating an international climate […]

New Zealand researchers have identified several compounds which show promise in reducing methane emissions from cows and sheep. Methane emissions from agriculture are the largest contributor to New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about one third of our total emissions. This week researchers at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Conference announced that […]

Carbon dioxide emissions, the main contributor to global warming, are set to rise again in 2014 – reaching a record high of 40 billion tonnes, according to a new global stock-take. A 2.5 per cent projected rise in burning fossil fuels is revealed by the Global Carbon Budget 2014, an analysis published in the journal Earth […]

The Ministry for the Environment has issued its latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2012) and Net Position — the official annual report of human caused emissions of greenhouse gases in New Zealand. The inventory is produced each year as part of New Zealand’s obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the […]

New Zealand should strive to become a green economy – low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive – according to an ’emerging issues’ paper from the Royal Society of New Zealand. The paper, released last week, outlines research on the resource and consumption challenges facing New Zealand and the rest of the world, and the […]

The New Zealand Herald’s Economics Editor Brian Fallow expresses his concern on climate policy in New Zealand. An excerpt (read in full here): Brian Fallow: A year on, climate policy still a disgrace Govt stance cannot be reconciled with its forecasts of emissions growth in latest policy report to the UN A year ago, this […]