Last week the quarterly auction for carbon credits hit a remarkable snag: it failed to meet the clearing price. This means none of the 4.5 million carbon permits on offer were sold. The failed auction was attributed to Cabinet’s decision to allow more credits to be issued, in an attempt to keep the carbon cost low. And it worked! The carbon price slumped from $90/tonne to $65/tonne. Cost of living crisis averted. The upshot is that the government just issued 40m tonnes of additional emissions – taking us even further away from our climate targets.

To explain all these shenanigans, I’m joined by Dr. Christina Hood, a policy expert in climate change, energy, and carbon pricing. She has over 16 years of experience providing analysis and advice to developed and developing countries, including a former role as head of the International Energy Agency Climate Change Unit.

It's 10 years since the first companies were certified as B-Corp in New Zealand and since then the movement of ethical and environmentally responsible businesses has grown to over 500 in NZ and Australia and more than 6000 worldwide. But growing pains are emerging as the movement shifts from cutting-edge to mainstream. Last year a group of 30 B-Corps were horrified when Nespresso was certified despite, as they say, ‘Nespresso’s abysmal track record on human rights from child labour and wage theft to abuse of factory workers’.

 Can any company be certified as B-Corp? Can the movement maintain its standards? Qiulae Wong is the first country manager for B Lab joins Vincent now to answer all this and more.

If the rain that deluged the North Island is the ‘new normal’, how are hard-hit growers

meant to think about the future – and growing anything in the ‘normal’ way?

Vincent Heeringa spoke to Brent Clothier, chief scientist with Plant &

Food, about four ways to think about growing food in a warmer and (ironically)

drier New Zealand.

Note: this was recorded before Cyclone Gabrielle devastated Hawkes bay and Tairawhiti.

How can we make sense of the Biblical deluge that soaked Auckland, Northland, and the Coromandel in late January – and by the time this is being recorded is about to happen again. If only there was an articulate, slow-talking climate scientist who could explain what hell just happened.

Oh, wait! Vincent just spoke with Kevin Trenberth a Distinguished Scholar at the National Center of Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder Colorado and an Honorary Academic in the Department of Physics, Auckland University. Kevin is a kiwi who left New Zealand, to obtain his doctorate in meteorology in 1972 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And has continued with climate research including being a lead author on the IPCC.

Building a new house in New Zealand produces on average two skips of construction debris. If a demolition is involved, added another 13 skips. As a nation, we’re really bad at diverting all that waste from landfill.

Ross Inglis spoke with two people with a solution: property developer Nigel Benton and Doctor Terri-Ann Berry from Unitec Institute of Technology.

Part Three: Rohan MacMahon on investment and technology 

Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another year of incrementalism? And what effect will the election, with a potential change of government, have on the direction and speed of climate policy? To shed some light Vincent dusted off the crystal ball and spoke to three experts about the year ahead: Marc Daalder Newsroom’s climate reporter; Dr Victoria Hatton, director of sustainability and climate change at PWC; Rohan MacMahon, partner at the Climate Venture Capital Fund.

Part two: Victoria Hatton on corporate strategy

Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another year of incrementalism? And what effect will the election, with a potential change of government, have on the direction and speed of climate policy? To shed some light Vincent dusted off the crystal ball and spoke to three experts about the year ahead: Marc Daalder Newsroom’s climate reporter; Dr Victoria Hatton, director of sustainability and climate change at PWC; Rohan MacMahon, partner at the Climate Venture Capital Fund.

Part One: Marc Daalder starts with the year ahead in politics.

Is 2023 the year that New Zealand seizes the nettle on climate action? Or is it another year of incrementalism? And what effect will the election, with a potential change of government, have on the direction and speed of climate policy? To shed some light Vincent dusted off the crystal ball and spoke to three experts about the year ahead: Marc Daalder Newsroom’s climate reporter; Dr Victoria Hatton, director of sustainability and climate change at PWC; Rohan MacMahon, partner at the Climate Venture Capital Fund.

Auckland’s climate plan Te-Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri is an impressive and ambitious document that sets out a response to climate change that’s not just about mitigation (that is, emissions reductions) but also adaptation and developing a future that’s unique to Tāmaki Makaurau. Sarah Anderson and Parin Rafiei-Thompson have been instrumental in the plan and now are the driving forces behind Climate Connect Aotearoa, an innovation hub funded by Council to accelerate Auckland’s climate response.

The primary sector has been in the gun lately for its reluctance to resolve its emissions profile. You’d almost think there’s some denial going on. Well, that might be true of some, but not all. In 2021 a broad industry effort went into a primary sector document called Fit for a Better World. The strategy lays down the challenge to be sustainable, inclusive and profitable, with specific targets for 2030 and beyond. I spoke to Jenny Cameron, the Chief Transformation Officier at MPI, and the leader of Fit a Better World programme.