April 2025

CONTENTS: From sewage and scum to swimming in ‘blue gold’: how Switzerland transformed its rivers – UK scientist wins prize for invention that could help avert ‘phosphogeddon’ – Nearly 100% of lithium recycled in latest research – UQ researchers set new solar cell world record – Plants are losing their appetite – WMO report documents spiralling weather and climate impacts – Trump Administration plans to gut NOAA – Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism as we know it, warns top insurer

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Upcoming event: A current perspective on local government

Crystal Beavis will talk about her experience as a first-term Councillor for Waikato District Council. Local Government plays a key role in infrastructure, engineering and related matters such as: roads, drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, building consenting, district planning and noise control. Funding pressures have been exacerbated by decreases in funding from central government, unfunded mandates, and legislated water reform.

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November 2024

CONTENTS – Earth’s ‘vital signs’ show humanity’s future in balance, say climate
experts – Five main takeaways from the Global Commission on the Economics of
Water Report, October 2024 – Extracts from IEA World Energy Outlook 2024 Executive Summary – Extracts from Energy Source & Distribution Magazine, Sep/Oct 2024 – Reducing climate emissions from farm livestock – Energy-saving coffee concrete makes major project debut – Deakin launches hydrogen R&D hub in Warrnambool – Amid Australia’s chaotic climate politics, the rooftop solar boom is an unlikely triumph – First Dog on the Moon, 11 October 2024.

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September 2024

CONTENTS – A history of the human mind – What is degrowth and can it save the planet? – News items from Reuters Sustainable Switch, August 2024 – Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. – Submission on the second emissions reduction plan consultation, 26/08/2024 – National Land Transport Programme 2024-27

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Watch video: A perspective on New Zealand’s climate change policies

The policy problem of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is not simple. For most people the official numbers are confusing and the policy architecture is obscure. Speaker Geoff Bertram gets both of those into perspective and shines a spotlight on Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement, focusing in particular on the accounting procedures that New Zealand has used to over-state its performance since 1990.

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Submission in response to proposed changes to NZ Emissions Trading Regulations 2024

In this submission the primary points we cover are steps that can be taken to improve the way the ETS operates, so that it becomes a lot more effective and capable of meeting the
urgent need to reduce our emissions. The possibility of replacing the current ETS with a
simple carbon tax is also covered.
Two other key points we cover are first the need for greater clarity in our net emissions measurements, and second the strong case for introducing a citizen’s dividend, funded from the revenue the Government receives from carbon charges, to compensate people for the rising costs of goods and services that will result from carbon charge increases.

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Watch video: The framing and reframing of public policy in New Zealand

The way in which we describe any major social problem largely determines the kind of policy we eventually consider for dealing with it. In this webinar, Michael Hanne explores the ways in which two issues, Poverty and the Housing Crisis, are generally “framed” in public discussion in New Zealand. He offers critiques of that framing and asks how they might usefully be “reframed” in a socially more responsible way. He ends by inviting the audience to talk about other issues they feel need to be reframed.

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