Rapid expansion of flexible electricity use and batteries could be crucial for a secure and affordable energy system, saving energy users between $5.4 and $20.8 billion through to 2050.

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has released an investigation report and launched consultation on Wellington’s heritage planning rules related to five key sites.

This opinion piece from Dr Greg Severinsen, reform director with the Environmental Defence Society gives a sobering assessment of how the government’s proposed regulatory relief framework could play out in Auckland.

‍RMLA, which represents lawyers, planners, judges, scientists, engineers, economists, landscape architects and other professionals working across New Zealand's resource management system, made a detailed submission on the Bills during the select committee process earlier this year. At a high level, RMLA supports the Government's intention to reform the resource management system and recognises that the Bills introduce a number of positive concepts and processes, including greater standardisation across plans, regional spatial planning and the establishment of a Planning Tribunal.

A Yale PhD candidate moved to Whanganui to investigate what nearly a decade of legal personhood has meant for Te Awa o Whanganui and its people.

The Government has introduced the Building Amendment Bill, which proposes a range of changes to New Zealand's building system, including reforms to liability settings, consenting processes and building research funding.

New Zealand's first complete national picture of public drinking water and wastewater network environmental performance shows many water networks are under severe pressure, with wastewater overflows, drinking water leakage and consent compliance emerging as significant challenges.

Unlocking New Zealand's environmental information outlines how better collection, management and use of environmental information could support more effective responses to New Zealand's environmental challenges.

RMLA was saddened to learn of the death of Jim Hopkins on 27 July 2026. Within RMLA, Jim was a long-standing and valued member who made a distinctive contribution to the Association and to the Resource Management Journal. Over many years, his writing brought something unusual and important to its pages: an ability to look at the complexities, conventions and occasional absurdities of resource management through a sharply observed and warmly humorous lens.

Published annually by the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland, NZJEL is New Zealand’s leading academic journal dedicated to environmental and resource management law, featuring in-depth legal scholarship, commentary, and analysis from leading academics, judges, practitioners, and policy experts.

The Government has taken an important first step towards preparing New Zealand for climate change by introducing the Climate Change Response Amendment Bill, but the Environmental Defence Society says the new adaptation framework risks becoming just a planning exercise unless ministers address the unresolved question of who will pay for implementation.

Parliament’s Environment Select Committee has today released its report on the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill. Together, the Bills will replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).