Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 1h

Hypothetically if you were a minister of the crown and you were overseas and you sent a staffer to a Very Important Meeting in your absence would you expect them to take notes or ???

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 1d

Amazing thank you. I took one look and decided it was probably quite a bit beyond Year 13 calculus 🫠

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 1d

Have you had a go at this Tim?

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Reposted by Kirsty Johnston

Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 1d

Seems like a good time to share this again - given the government's decision to weaken the methane emissions target and not to put a price on agricultural emissions northandsouth.co.nz/2021/10/18/n...

"We Spent 25 Years Doing Virtually Nothing"

Why New Zealand is one of the developed world's worst climate laggards

northandsouth.co.nz

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Reposted by Kirsty Johnston

Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 2d

I thought I’d have a go at answering the question: what’s the flow on effect on emissions budgets from the methane cuts?

The answer was worse than I had anticipated

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Scientists fear weaker methane target signals wider retreat from climate action

After cutting methane targets, New Zealand has a choice: shoulder the burden at huge cost - or cause more warming to the planet.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 2d

Ah thank the scientists!

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 2d

I thought I’d have a go at answering the question: what’s the flow on effect on emissions budgets from the methane cuts?

The answer was worse than I had anticipated

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Scientists fear weaker methane target signals wider retreat from climate action

After cutting methane targets, New Zealand has a choice: shoulder the burden at huge cost - or cause more warming to the planet.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Reposted by Kirsty Johnston

Christina Hood @christinahood.bsky.social · 3d

If you are fuming about the derailment of climate ambition in AoNZ, how about helping fund an investigation into where this came from 👇

Byron C Clark @byroncclark.bsky.social · 4d

The crowdfund for a podcast investigating how the idea of quitting the Paris climate accords went from fringe to mainstream is getting closer and closer to the goal. If 25 more people pledge $5 we'll be three quarters of the way there

www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/861...

Podcast: Quit Paris? How pulling out of the Paris Climate Accords went from fringe media to the mainstream | PledgeMe

Quit Paris? This podcast will investigate how a fringe idea moved from being a fringe position to one advocated by mainstream politicians

www.pledgeme.co.nz

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

*policy

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

Not for ages, thank you

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

In saying that my last OIA reply from MFAT in response to question about climate police impacting trade looked like this so …. Hmm

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

You know what I will find out

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

I haven’t quite got my head around that yet other than noting the documents only recommended it as a “last resort”. Like have we tried the other resorts or simply skipping straight to the most expensive option?

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

Absolutely not. Also the quality of the last few I’ve looked at has been particularly dire which might have something to do with the gutting of the public service. Also depends who they got to do it - if it’s MPI it’ll be skewed towards Ag etc.

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

Possibly but leaving it to the market hasn’t been wholly successful in other sectors so far!

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

Oh but we have a whole regulatory ministry now! Surely!!

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

They’re probably still rounding up reactions - good reason to drop it on a Sunday when the scientists are hiking or swimming or whatever they get up to when not saving the earth

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

If you have no idea where this came from or what it means I wrote this explainer a few weeks ago:

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

The great methane debate explained

Explainer - A major decision is about to be announced by the PM, but what does it mean and why does it matter?

www.rnz.co.nz

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 3d

Can’t wait to see the regulatory impact statement that outlines the impact of this decision on everyone who isn’t a farmer

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Government lowers methane target, rules out methane taxes

The government is lowering its biogenic methane target for the next 25 years and is ruling out agricultural taxes on methane emissions.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 6d

Is this kind of like a racehorse syndicate? Would I own like, a little tiny bit of blade?

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 6d

Because it’s going so well and all

www.nzherald.co.nz/business/com...

Richard Prebble: Govt must get out of electricity and let market deliver security

OPINION: Repaying debt would be better for taxpayers and the market.

www.nzherald.co.nz

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Reposted by Kirsty Johnston

Mark Gongloff @markgongloff.bsky.social · 12d

"Spain’s rapid renewables build-out means its power prices were set by fossil generation just 19% of the time, down from 75% in 2019. As a result, wholesale electricity was almost a third cheaper than the EU average"

Imagine having cheaper power

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Spain’s Renewable-Energy Boom Loosens Gas’s Grip on Power Prices

Soaring renewables output in Spain is weakening gas’s grip on electricity prices, setting the country apart from much of Europe where fossil fuels still dictate the cost of power.

www.bloomberg.com

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Reposted by Kirsty Johnston

Keith Alexander @keithalexander.bsky.social · 8d

“We must stop expecting carbon offsetting to work at scale. […] We have assessed 25 years of evidence and almost everything up until this point has failed.”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says

Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

www.theguardian.com

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Kirsty Johnston @kirstyjohnston.bsky.social · 8d

"Data shows in almost all parts of the country, there were more people unemployed than there were jobs available."

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

How many job hunters are there for each job ad?

Finding work may not be as easy as "getting off the PlayStation", data on jobs and job hunters shows.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Reposted by Kirsty Johnston

Glenn McConnell @glennmccnz.bsky.social · 13d

I went to speak to Samuel Leason's father, Adi, in Ōtaki. Others from the flotilla have told that "Israeli commandos" have taken 18-year-old Samuel, but neither the New Zealand nor Israeli governments have confirmed this.

Nevertheless, Adi is very proud of his son.

www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/3...

How Kiwi teen ended up in Israeli detention as part of Gaza flotilla protest

Samuel Leason had at first tried to get to Gaza by land, marching across the Sinai desert, his dad says.

www.stuff.co.nz

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