Crypto News: New Zealand retreats on climate

Thousands of miles away from Washington, D.C., New Zealand may already be giving the world a glimpse of what global climate policy will look like in the Trump era. The nation, a one-time leader on emissions reductions, has been carrying out a series of green policy reversals. Read more below. You can also find the full story on Bloomberg.com. For more climate and energy news, please subscribe.

The climate pushback 8,745 miles from DC

By Aaron Clark and Tracy Withers

Five years ago New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was a climate rock star pushing the country to become one of the first advanced economies to set legally-binding net zero targets. Today, the South Pacific island nation may already be giving the world a glimpse of what global climate policy will look like in the Trump era.

New PM Christopher Luxon's center-right coalition, which took office in late 2023, is rolling back curbs on fossil fuels, loosening emissions regulations for the giant dairy sector, and criticizing banks over their restrictions on lending.

The more cautious climate approach from Luxon's government — elected on a platform to revive a flagging economy — contrasts with splashy green announcements from predecessor Ardern. It's also an example of the direction other nations could follow as the US leads a retreat from climate action, and as companies to electorates push back against the costs of hitting net zero targets.

Christopher Luxon, New Zealand's prime minister Photographer: Brendon O'Hagan/Bloomberg

Luxon's coalition partner David Seymour, due to take on the role of deputy prime minister later this year, has even raised the prospect of following the US in quitting the Paris Agreement on emissions reduction, indicating his ACT Party could campaign on the issue at the country's next national election.

"New Zealand leaders appear to be favoring immediate economic gain," over climate action, said Alice Hill, a Washington-based senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "That political expediency comes at a high price as climate change extremes cause ever greater damage."

Concerns are mounting among climate advocates that governments globally are faltering on their commitments to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and only a handful of nations met a Feb. 10 deadline to lodge more ambitious national targets with the United Nations under the Paris Agreement. In Switzerland this month, voters rejected a set of rigid emissions limits proposed by a youth wing of the nation's Green Party, with polls showing citizens remains worried about the impact on jobs and growth.

Luxon insists that New Zealand can meet a 2050 goal to zero out its emissions, though 2035 targets submitted to the UN — which pledge to cut emissions between 51% and 55% below 2005 levels — have been criticized as lacking in ambition. Other key recent changes have exempted the country's agricultural sector, which accounts for almost half of the nation's emissions, from paying carbon taxes until 2030, while a 2018 ban on offshore oil and gas exploration introduced by Ardern has been overturned.

What's next for New Zealand? Read the full story on Bloomberg.com.

Worrying about the future

750,000

This is how many New Zealand residents live near near rivers or coastal areas exposed to extreme flooding, according to the report of a parliamentary inquiry published last year.

Romanticizing the past?

"We were barely reducing emissions at all under the previous Ardern government."

Finn Ross

Founder of Climate Action Company, a broker for carbon and biodiversity credits

Some observers disagree that New Zealand is retreating from climate leadership, arguing that Luxon has focused on realistic policies with more chance of delivering success, or that the prior government had achieved little.

More from Green

Europe's sweeping efforts to regulate for everything from carbon neutrality to social inequity were once hailed as setting the agenda for the rest of the world.

Now, some of those efforts are on the chopping block, the first domino teetering as the region weighs its reaction to the wave of global deregulation unleashed by Donald Trump's return to the White House.

In the clearest indication yet of its post-Trump approach to green, and financial regulation more widely, the European Union is due to propose scaling back several environmental, social and governance reporting requirements, which have been criticized for placing significant compliance costs on companies with limited benefit.

The details of Brussels' plan to fix those shortcomings are still shrouded in mystery, with even countries that push for change reluctant to do a firesale on climate. But with the bloc's economy rapidly falling behind the rest of the world, many experts see the so-called omnibus package as a key step to restoring competitiveness when it will be unveiled on Feb. 26.

"We are still committed to the Green Deal," the EU's 2019 program to slash emissions, financial services commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque (pictured) said in an interview last month. Photographer: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg

The EPA will try to take back some climate funds. The EPA is attempting to claw back some $20 billion in funding for climate projects awarded under President Joe Biden's signature climate law, administrator Lee Zeldin said Wednesday evening, characterizing the effort as a "scheme" without proper oversight.

A US carbon recycling firm sees growth in India. LanzaTech Global Inc. sees an opportunity to expand in India, the world's third-largest emitter, as uncertainty over clean energy technology in the US grows following Trump's climate pullback.

A nature startup has raised $160 million for forest carbon removal. Chestnut Carbon aims to sidestep issues that have plagued carbon markets. Many of the company's projects involvepurchasing non-performing agricultural and pasture lands and planting trees rather than paying farmers to do so.

We're also reading

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its offices, including the National Hurricane Center and National Weather Service, will be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

All maps, nautical charts, websites and weather products will reflect the name change that is part of an executive order US President Donald Trump signed focused on what the administration says is "restoring names that honor American greatness."

"Work is underway to update the naming convention as quickly as possible," Susan Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the National Weather Service, said in an email.

Photographer: Michael A. McCoy/Bloomberg

Worth a listen

How do we keep climate action alive in a fracturing world?

"Today we live in an age where we actually have the solutions — technologically, economically, financially speaking– but what we are not doing is acting on them," Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Program tells Akshat Rathi on this week's episode of Zero.

In a conversation recorded at COP29 in Baku, Steiner talked about how some countries — including Uruguay, India, Kenya, China, and Bhutan — are moving forward with innovative climate solutions even when international financing isn't readily available.

"There is more than enough money and wealth in our financial system, but it is concentrated in a part of the world that is struggling to find ways to invest," Steiner said. He also called on the developed world to find better ways to fund sustainable development, and explained why he's still optimistic about the world's ability to work towards shared solutions.

Listen to the full episode and learn more about Zero here. Subscribe on Apple or Spotify to stay on top of new episodes.