The Government has released a new national strategy to support the future development of geothermal energy.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has made a submission to the Environment Select Committee on the Environment (Disestablishment of Ministry for the Environment) Amendment Bill.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment wrote to Hon Simon Watts, Minister for Energy, outlining his concerns about the Government’s proposal to support the construction of a liquefied natural gas import facility.

New Zealand’s first national wastewater environmental standards became law late last year. As the standards begin to be implemented, some questions and misconceptions have emerged.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment underscored the importance of communicating environmental complexity effectively in his address to the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.

The Environmental Defence Society has launched a series of investigative pieces into how environmental laws are being made in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) has lodged its final submission on the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill with Parliament’s Environment Select Committee, including detailed tracked-change drafting to address significant weaknesses in the legislation.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has submitted on the Government’s Simplifying Local Government proposals.

The National Infrastructure Plan was published this week. It sets out a practical, affordable pathway to deliver the infrastructure New Zealanders need to thrive over the next 30 years.

At a high level, RMLA supports reform of New Zealand’s resource management system and considers the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill introduce a number of positive concepts and processes. However, as currently drafted, the Bills contain structural, procedural, and substantive issues that risk undermining certainty, efficiency, and the achievement of high-quality land use planning, development and environmental outcomes. Our submission therefore recommends targeted and, in some cases, material amendments to ensure the new system is legally robust, workable, and enduring.

Environmental Defence Society Chief Executive Gary Taylor says, “The fear has been that the Fast-track Approvals Act would approve every application regardless of its environmental impacts. The draft decision on the Trans-Tasman Resources offshore mining project shows that’s not the case.”