The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has made a submission to the Department of Conservation on its Modernising Conservation Land Management discussion document.

The Government has made key decisions on a Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) framework to enable businesses to benefit from storing carbon underground, which will support New Zealand’s businesses to continue operating while reducing net carbon emissions.

The Public Works Act will undergo its most significant reform in nearly 50 years to help unleash an infrastructure boom.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has written to the Minister for Resources Shane Jones with questions on the Minerals Strategy for New Zealand and the Critical Minerals List for New Zealand.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment gave a speech at the Bluegreens Forum on Saturday 22 February outlining six conclusions that policy makers must confront when considering the environment.

The Chief Executives of four leading ENGOs (EDS, Greenpeace Aotearoa, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Forest & Bird) presented the Prime Minister with a Memorandum that called out some of his Ministers for misrepresenting the quality of stewardship land in public.

Central government agencies are expected to spend approximately $3.55 billion on the environment in the 2024/25 fiscal year, according to the latest estimate of environmental expenditure from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

The Ministry for the Environment has new Strategic Intentions to guide the next four years. The guide informs New Zealanders about the Ministry’s strategic objectives and five priorities over the next four years.   

The Government has released documents relating to resource management reform phase two - national direction.

The PCE has expressed his concerns about the Local Government (Water Services) Bill in his submission to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. He points out that in attempting to simplify the treatment of stormwater and wastewater, the Bill is proposing an inflexible, one-size-fits-all approach that does not account for New Zealand’s regional and local differences.

MfE released new climate projections last year, making the data publicly available at no charge for the first time. The projections show potential changes to temperature, wind and rainfall over the rest of the century.

They can now be accessed as a downloadable dataset, a map, or a summary dashboard.

On Thursday 13 February 2025, the Government released documents relating to Cabinet decisions on the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill.