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OPINION: City and regional councils have been put on notice - stop using extreme climate forecasting scenarios that can drive unnecessary costs onto ratepayers.
Climate Minister, Simon Watts has written to mayors and councillors across New Zealand outlining his concerns.
Councils shouldn’t default to worst-case assumptions that can unnecessarily increase rates and delay investment.
Watts has directed officials to take stock of how these scenarios are being used and provide advice on whether stronger national direction or legislative change is needed to restore consistency and common sense.
This will be welcomed by the rural community who are being slapped with increasing rates by their regional councils, some under the guise of climate change.
Federated Farmers has called on Central Otago District Council (CODC) to drop or vote down a plan to truck sludge from Alexandra and Cromwell to farmland near Lauder, warning it would compound an "outrageous" situation created by a separate council's decision weeks earlier.
Environment Minister Nicola Grigg has announced details of a new rural plastics recycling scheme.
Red meat farmers are welcoming Labour’s plan to review the Emissions Trading Scheme and not to campaign on pricing agricultural emissions.
The New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF) says unnecessary changes to New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS) will seriously erode investor confidence and result in significant reductions in forest planting rates.
For the first time in a quarter of a century, Federated Farmers has something positive to say about the Labour Party’s climate change policy leading into a general election.
A major move is about to get underway to improve the quality and viability of dairy beef and cattle in NZ.
Veterinarians say changes to the code of welfare for dairy cattle provides a positive foundation for improved cattle welfare across the country.
Today, 15 October, is the International Day of Rural Women, which recognises rural women’s contribution to farming, communities and the environment.
Global dairy giant Lactalis has integrated its Australian operations with the Mainland Dairy consumer business it acquired from Fonterra earlier this year.
After almost two decades of sharemilking, saving and building equity, Aaron and Marcia Flay this year realised their long-held dream of settling on their first dairy farm.
Good medium to long term prospects for NZ beef, especially in the US, has heighted the focus on various initiatives to capitalise on this situation.
