Solid Energy has just announced that they will drop plans for digging up lignite in NZ. Whilst the Government’s mishandling of the state-owned business will have widespread implications for those communities who depend on Solid Energy for their economic lifeline, today’s decision sends a very clear signal about the future of burning coal. It is good news.

The collapse of the coal price and Don Elder’s preference for “Think Big” projects have seen the company’s finances go up in smoke. And the centrepiece of Elder’s vision for the company was to dig up vast amounts of the most polluting types of coal - lignite - and turn it into fertiliser or diesel. It was a climate bomb just waiting for Elder to light the fuse.

But this morning, Solid Energy Chairman Mark Ford announced that these plan...

Earlier this week, we launched a report that showed that our clean energy sector could become the beating heart of our nation’s economy whilst creating many tens of thousands of jobs. Here's the infographic, the report, and the full modelling document.

The report was based on detailed economic and energy analysis by DLR, the German Space Agency as well as New Zealand based experts. Its conclusions showed that with the right Government action we could transform our energy landscape and in doing so play a role in delivering the clean technology solutions that the world needs.

At Monday’s official launch on board the Rainbow Warrior in Wellington, we were joined by over a hundred guests including politicians from the Labour and Green parties, business and industry leaders, economists and sci... Read more >

Yesterday was a good day. It was a day that my colleagues in Indonesia and around the world feared might never come. It was a day when that we have taken a huge step closer to saving remaining rainforests of Indonesia and the communities and endangered species who call them home.

Last night, in Jakarta, the notorious rainforest destroyer Asia Pulp and Paper, the world’s third largest paper supplier and owner of New Zealand based Cottonsoft, launched its new ‘Forest Conservation Policy’ committing to “end the "clearing of natural forest" across its entire supply chain, with immediate effect[i]”.

Many of my colleagues have invested endless hours over the last decade to expose the role that APP has played in the destruction of rainforests and persuade them to take this positive step.  Afte... Read more >

When is a trade deal not a trade deal, but a grab by multinational corporations to undermine our environmental protection law?  When it’s the TPPA.

In early December, the next round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations will be taking place in Auckland.  But what exactly is the TPPA?  When in Asia recently, John Key was talking up his discussions with President Obama about making ‘progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement’. Sounds very important and must have something to do with free trade, and you would be forgiven for thinking so.

The Government is selling us this deal as ‘a mega trade deal’, which is wrong. Much of what this actually means for New Zealand is being withheld; discussed in secret and will be withheld from the public for many years aft... Read more >

Today we learned that the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras has handed back its licence to drill for oil in the deep waters off the East Cape. And this news has been welcomed by those communities whose beaches and livelihoods were at risk from an oil spill and the pollution that comes from oil drilling. The cultural and environmental heritage of this beautiful, pristine part of Aotearoa is now safe.

However, this news should also be a wake-up call for Steven Joyce and his Cabinet colleagues who have pinned our economic hopes on the whims of overseas oil companies. Every effort has been made by this National Government to court some of the world’s most polluting industries, allowing them to damage the once proud reputation New Zealanders had by lobbying for the weakening environmental safegua... Read more >