Seven reasons to be hopeful

A look back at the climate and environment highlights from 2022

Kia ora, welcome to Future Proof, brought to you by Electric Kiwi.

Kākāpō mum Ninihi on her 2022 nest. Image credit: Jake Osborne/Department of Conservation.

This is the last edition of Future Proof for 2022, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some glimmers of hope from the past year. Please enjoy my seven picks – and let me know what makes you hopeful about the climate and nature and people.  

1. The kākāpō population boomed

The population of the world’s heaviest parrot reached a 50-year high of 252, after the summer breeding season produced a bumper crop of 55 chicks. Stay tuned for the next breeding season (it occurs every couple of years when rimu trees produce a lot of fruit) as the Kākāpō Recovery team are planning to set up a kākāpō nest livestream!

2. Progress made on the plastic problem

Aotearoa said bye-bye to several hard-to-recycle and single-use plastic items. In March, 175 countries agreed to draw up a legally binding UN treaty by 2024 with the aim of ending plastic pollution. Negotiations for the treaty are underway.

3. An important win at Cop27

While the latest UN climate summit may have overall been “bitter, divisive and chaotic”, the marathon negotiations did produce an historic agreement to establish a “loss and damage fund” for small nations vulnerable to climate change. Such a fund was first called for more than 30 years ago, by the small Pacific nation of Vanuatu.

4. Climate plans galore

This year saw a number of important climate plans released by the government, including the National Adaptation Plan and Emissions Reduction Plan. Auckland Council released an ambitious transport plan, aiming to reduce emissions. These are important first steps for change – the will is there, the kōrero is there, and now we just need to follow up with some action!

5. We fell in love with EVs

New Zealanders are keen on electric vehicles, as another big year of EV sales draws to a close. In 2014, there were only around 100 EVs registered in New Zealand. In the first nine months of 2022, more than 13,000 were registered. Back in March this year, the Ministry of Transport estimated that there were more than 38,000 EVs in the country.

6. Predator-free aspirations continued to shine

We’re pretty bloody good at getting rid of invasive pests from islands – and in fact a study published this year found that New Zealand leads the world in island pest eradications. Now, we have our sights set on our third biggest island, Rakiura, with an epic plan to remove possums, rats, feral cats and hedgehogs. 

7. The billionaire founder of Patagonia gave away his company to save the Earth

In September, the rock-climbing activist founder of outdoor clothing company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, “gave away his company” to a non-profit to ensure that all profits would go towards combating the climate crisis. The company is worth $3 billion. Across the ditch in Australia, billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has staged “a climate coup” by investing in Australia’s largest emitter, AGL Energy, and getting four new directors installed on its board. His endgame is to accelerate Australia’s decarbonisation, shifting AGL away from coal and toward renewables.

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Tips for a sustainable Christmas

Christmas can often be an occasion of excess: lots of food, gifts, tree ornaments and wrapping paper. There are heaps of easy switches you can make to dial down the rampant consumerism: last month, Chris Schulz of The Spinoff’s Stocktake spoke to an ethical Christmas cracker business, and “trash queen” Alex Kirkham has some tips for better wrapping paper choices over on Stuff. As for what’s inside the wrapping paper, perhaps consider a gift that isn’t a thing (especially an unwanted thing that might get binned). The Endangered Species Foundation is offering virtual adoptions for underappreciated species: you can give a shag to someone if that’s your style. Or The Good Registry can help you give a donation to a cause your loved one cares about. Lastly, there’s the dreaded dinner table convos with relatives: RNZ’s climate reporter Hamish Cardwell has some great advice for talking about climate change this holiday season.

Breakthrough in fusion energy 

US scientists have reported achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time ever, according to a story first broken by the Financial Times. A nuclear fusion reaction is the same type of reaction that powers the sun, and is a holy grail among scientists pursuing limitless, zero carbon energy with minimal nuclear waste. Analysis of the results is still underway, and Australian scientists have cautioned that while this is an important first step, there are many more hurdles to overcome. “It’s unlikely that fusion power – which generates no greenhouse gases and minimal nuclear waste – will save us from climate change,” says professor Ken Baldwin from the Australian National University. “The energy apparently released from the Livermore experiments is only enough to boil a kettle.”

Your dinner’s climate emissions, revealed

How big is the climate footprint of your butter? Or what about your beef? Your berries? Stuff’s data journos Kate Newton and Felippe Rodrigues have dived into the University of Otago’s research on New Zealand-specific food emissions and crafted a very cool interactive story that allows you to easily explore the emissions data of your fave snacks. (We spoke to Cristina Cleghorn from the University of Otago about this data in a previous edition.)

In other food news: overseas consumers are prepared to pay more for sustainable food products, new research finds. And in the Netherlands, vertical farming, seed tech and robotics have ushered in a new era of food production that’s made this small nation a food export powerhouse, the Washington Post reports. For a splash of homegrown food innovation, Stuff’s Olivia Wannan meets an entrepreneurial pair developing lab-grown, methane-free dairy.

An update from Cop15

The UN biodiversity summit continues this week, and a plan to protect 30% of the Earth’s land and oceans by 2030 is dominating the agenda. But some at the conference are critical of the target, pointing out that locking up large tracts of land and sea is often at odds with Indigenous rights. Nature has published an explainer on the summit, where negotiators are aiming to seal a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework which will establish precise targets for countries to protect and restore nature.

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More stories:

• There’s a new plan drawn up for Milford Sound, and it doesn’t include cruise ships. Vanessa Bellew reports for Newsroom on the debate over the impact of cruise ships, and whether they belong in the pristine environment of the iconic fiord. 

• Eight hoiho chicks have hatched at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital, the first time the species’ eggs have been incubated successfully in captivity.

• Reusable packaging is being trialled at some McDonald’s across France.

• Sarah Heeringa, the new life editor for Stuff’s Forever Project, speaks to Kiwis on the frontline of conservation and climate, finding unexpected wellsprings of hope.

• On this week’s Business is Boring podcast, host Simon Pound chats to circular economy expert Ken Webster about the challenges and benefits of shifting to a circular (rather than linear make-take-waste) economy.

• Moving to the US, Emma Ricketts was confronted by Americans’ voracious appetite for single-use plastic. In this piece on The Spinoff, she compares the very different US and New Zealand approaches to plastic.

• ICYMI: A life-cycle assessment found that Aotearoa-produced beef and lamb has carbon footprints among the lowest in the world (Sponsored).

Image credit: Thomas Mattern/Tawaki Project.

To finish this issue: I’m looking forward to spending the next few weeks making like these tawaki / erect-crested penguins on the Antipodes and having a good snooze. A team recently ventured to the remote islands to check up on the tawaki colonies. Researcher Thomas Mattern tweets, “The birds with the funky eyebrows can sleep no matter what posture.” Hope this holiday break puts a peng-grin on your face! 

Have a chill one,

Ellen

Got some feedback about Future Proof or topics you’d like covered? Get in touch with me at futureproof@thespinoff.co.nz