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The United Nations Environmental Programme’s latest Emissions Gap Report was called “No more hot air … please!” Yesterday, I joined a panel at the Climate Change & Business Conference to talk about New Zealand’s Nationally Determined Contribution – our NDC. Under the Paris Agreement, countries must produce targets for emission reductions, set policies consistent with their targets, and report on their progress. Read more

Imagine that you owned a vacant piece of land. You were trying to decide whether to put solar panels on it to generate electricity or to plant trees on it to sequester carbon and earn carbon credits. Read more

Getting from Auckland to Cathedral Cove means a two-and-a-half-hour drive over 178 kilometres, the last third of which is a windy path through the Coromandel. Inland Revenue sets a $1.04 per kilometre mileage rate for business travel – a figure meant to include wear and tear on your vehicle as well as running costs. Read more

In 1968, ecologist Garrett Hardin argued that the “Tragedy of the Commons” is commonplace. If you wanted to deliberately engineer a commons problem, the management of the Conservation Estate would make for a pretty decent guidebook. Read more

Policy problems should be dealt with by the level and part of government best placed to deal with them. Good public policy should recognise subsidiarity. Read more

‘Hard cases make bad law’ is a common legal adage. It means the more worthy a cause, the more tempting it will be for a court to stretch the law to make it fit. Read more

The World Justice Project ranks New Zealand 7th out of 142 countries on its ‘Rule of Law Index’, narrowly ahead of Australia’s 13th place. However, Australia still has hope – if only because of a recent decision by the Supreme Court of New Zealand. Read more