Category: Public Media

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New Zealand awarded dubious ‘Fossil of the Day’ at COP30 climate talks

Source: Radio New Zealand

View of the logo of COP30 UN Climate Change Conference, in Belem, Para state, Brazil, taken on 6 November 2025. AFP / Ludovic Marin

New Zealand has been given the ignominious ‘Fossil of the Day’ award at the COP30 global climate summit, for its decision to weaken methane emissions policies.

It’s the fourth time New Zealand has received the dud award, handed out by climate NGO Climate Action Network International and designed to shame countries that block progress at the annual talks.

New Zealand was last named Fossil of the Day in 2023, for the National-led government’s decision to reverse the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.

It has previously been given the award in 2022 for pushing to delay setting up a loss and damage fund to compensate poorer countries bearing the brunt of climate change-fuelled extreme weather, and in 2021 for the then-Labour government’s decision not to update New Zealand’s emissions target.

Unlike carbon dioxide, which warms the atmosphere for centuries, methane is a short-lived gas but has huge warming potential.

Reducing methane has attracted growing attention as an ’emergency brake’ on warming while the world works on technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and remove them from the air.

But in October, the government said it would lower New Zealand’s methane emissions target, after a review found that was sufficient to meet a controversial ‘no additional warming’ goal.

It also scrapped an earlier promise to introduce a price on agricultural methane by 2030.

Climate Action Network International said the weakened methane target was “not science-based”.

“It is certainly not consistent with the Paris Agreement or with the [UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] principles of equity and responsibility.”

About half of New Zealand’s overall greenhouse gas emissions are methane emissions – mostly produced by agriculture.

Climate Change minister Simon Watts [ https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/578698/climate-change-minister-defends-weakened-methane-emissions-target-ahead-of-cop30] defended the change in New Zealand’s methane policies before he headed to COP30, being held in Belém, Brazil.

He said reducing the size of New Zealand’s dairy herd was “not economically rational” and he believed methane-inhibiting technology being developed would be sufficient to meet the new target, without a methane tax.

Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Amanda Larsson said the latest Fossil of the Day award was “embarrassing but it’s sadly not surprising”.

Amanda Larsson. RNZ / Jonathan Mitchell

“Fossil of the Day is the award no country wants to receive, and today, the shame of receiving it is on Christopher Luxon’s Government, who are weakening the requirements for our most polluting industry to take action on climate change.”

Larsson said the change to the target followed agriculture industry lobbying and directly contradicted advice from the Climate Change Commission to strengthen the methane target.

The ‘no additional warming’ target – which aims to get New Zealand’s methane emissions back to 2017 levels, was an “accounting trick”, Larsson said.

“Other major livestock producers will be looking to us to see whether this approach is worthwhile. Our government has just lit the fuse on a global methane race to the bottom – once one domino falls, others will follow.”

Climate Minister Simon Watts. RNZ / Nick Monro

Earlier in the week, University of Canterbury professor of physics David Frame told RNZ it was “a good idea” to work on methane, “but only if this is additional to [carbon dioxide] mitigation”.

New Zealand remains a signatory to the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to lower methane emissions by 30 percent from 2020 levels by 2030.

Frame, who served on the independent panel that was tasked with finding an emissions range consistent with ‘no additional warming’, said if the world as a whole adopted ‘no additional warming’ as a target, methane emissions would drop by four percent over the next decade.

“That would be progress compared with actual trends.”

New Zealand was not incentivising agricultural methane emissions reductions as well as it could, though.

“We should… explore a [low] price on methane emissions, because it’s among the best-justified and most effective policy approaches,” he said.

“This government may have ruled out a methane price, but governments are like buses – there are new ones along from time to time. Good ideas have a habit of hanging around until someone tries them.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Two IKEA pop-ups give fans a glimpse of the goods before first NZ store opens

Source: Radio New Zealand

The first IKEA store in NZ opens in early December, alongside online shopping. TVNZ Seven Sharp

IKEA is opening two pop-up stores ahead of its first New Zealand store, but just for window shoppers.

The Swedish furniture giant’s Auckland showroom will open in early December at Sylvia Park. From Tuesday, Christchurch shoppers can browse what it’s calling a “curated collection of popular products” from Tuesday until 10 December.

The pop-up is in Cathedral Square and will also include original works from local artists such as Miranda Parkes, Adam Popovic and Dcypher.

On 28 November, another will open in Wellington at Odlins Plaza and that will feature movie-inspired posters and trailers, created by illustrators and VFX artists from the city.

IKEA has also released some details of products and the prices it will charge in New Zealand.

One of the first products IKEA says it will sell in NZ, a watering can for $4.99. Supplied/IKEA

IKEA will open at Sylvia Park on 4 December, with online sales to the rest of the country.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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What is workslop?

Source: Radio New Zealand

Workslop masquerades as meaningful, it may appear superficially polished, and yet requires others to interpret, fix, or even redo it.

It’s a growing source of frustration in the workplace, Dr Kate Niederhoffer a social psychologist told RNZ’s Afternoons.

She is vice president of Texas-based BetterUp Labs and co-authored a study on workslop when she started to hear anecdotal evidence of it. 

Kate Niederhoffer.

Photo courtesy BetterUp

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Serko sees strong revenue growth, while posting increased loss

Source: Radio New Zealand

Serko handles corporate travel management and expenses, and operates the Booking.com for Business platform. Unsplash

Travel software company Serko posted a bigger bottom-line half-year loss driven by one-offs, but its income surged, thanks to its partnership with US giant Booking.com.

Key numbers for the six months ended September compared with a year ago:

  • Net loss $9.5m vs $5.1m loss
  • Revenue $61.8m vs $42.7m
  • Operating expenses $65.1m vs $50.4m
  • Adjusted earnings (EBITDAFI) $6.1m vs $1.2m
  • Free cash flow $3.0 vs $1.3m
  • No dividend

Serko said the increased loss was driven by foreign exchange losses and a non-cash accounting loss on the sale of its InterplX expense business.

It said momentum in its Booking.com for business drove the result, with completed room nights up 32 percent to 2.1 million, while active customers increased 40 percent from a year ago.

“Our performance reinforces Serko’s continued track record and ability to deliver high growth and cost discipline as we execute on our strategic focus areas,” chief executive Darrin Grafton said.

Grafton said the company was also looking at opportunities from artificial intelligence.

“Serko is well positioned to unlock the full value of AI as a core pillar of our strategy and product roadmap.”

The company was co-designing AI-powered capabilities with customers in the US, and said it had received positive engagement.

It said Australasian travel revenue was stable, with online bookings up 2 percent and improved margins.

Serko reaffirmed its full-year income guidance of $115-$123 million, compared to $90.5m in the year ended March 2024.

Forsyth Barr senior analyst James Lindsay said the result was “solid” with total income slightly ahead of expectations.

He noted Serko’s balance sheet remained strong with net cash of $65m.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Air New Zealand says cabin crew considering strike action

Source: Radio New Zealand

The airline says no formal notice of a strike has been received. Kai Schwoerer

Air New Zealand says it has been made aware by E tū union that staff have voted to take industrial action.

“We are aware that cabin crew represented by E tū union have voted to take industrial action,” Air New Zealand’s chief executive officer Nikhil Ravishankar said in a statement.

“However, no formal notice of a strike has been received.”

He said negotiations were scheduled to continue with the union later this week to “progress efforts to reach a fair and sustainable agreement that recognises the important work our crew do”.

More to come.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Seafood company Sanford’s full-year net profit $63.7 million, more than triple previous year

Source: Radio New Zealand

Sanford’s net profit for the year ended September was $63.7 million. Supplied / Sanford

Seafood company Sanford has made a record full-year profit driven by the strong performance of its aquacultural business.

Net profit for the year ended September was $63.7 million, or more than three times the year earlier’s $19.7m.

However, overall revenue was little changed at $584.1m.

Cash flow was up 85 percent on the year earlier, helping the company cut net debt by nearly half to $92.1m.

Managing director David Mair said improved profitability, prudent capital management and conservative dividend levels played a part in the debt reduction.

“Sanford plans to reduce debt further in FY26 so that capital investment initiatives can be considered and funded within our balance sheet.”

While Sanford’s salmon and mussels aquacultural business exceeded expectations, the wild catch fell short of the year earlier.

“We are now focused on operating as a commodity player, where reducing costs and operating more efficiently are critical for our continued success,” Mair said.

“I have carried out an initial high-level review of our aquaculture businesses (salmon and mussels) with a clearer understanding of what is needed to build a platform for growth.

“Driving product costs down and lowering overheads will make us more competitive in any market. Whilst we have made improvements, there is a lot more that needs to be done.”

He said global demand for protein continued to increase, though market turbulence continued.

“This means we need to review the markets we operate in. Sanford has become concentrated in several large traditional markets, particularly China and the US. China is, and will continue to be, a key market for our company.

“The US will remain more challenging. We must create a broader market scope for our products, then develop, maintain and enhance our interactions with key customers in those markets.”

He said many factors were beyond Sanford’s control.

“While always striving for performance improvements, it should not be assumed that this year’s financial result will be repeated.”

The company will pay a full year dividend of 10 cents a share, which was the same as last year’s.

Sanford’s chairperson Sir Rob Mcleod also announced a plan to retire from the board in the next calendar year.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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When will instant coffee be affordable again?

Source: Radio New Zealand

Instant coffee prices have spiked this year. creative commons – pixabay – moritz320

The cost of food continues to climb, with Stats NZ figures showing some of the sharpest increases in staples like cheese, eggs and milk.

But few items rose as sharply in price as instant coffee – up 25.5 percent on last year, to an average $7.88 per 100g.

“I think for the refills of the Moccona coffee it was like maybe $6 or $7 and now it’s like nearly $11,” one listener told Morning Report.

“It can range a lot, like at some places they might be $6.50, other places they’re closer to $10,” said another.

“I just grab it and put it in the trolley. It’s a necessity, right?” a third added.

Coffee Supreme chief executive Andrew Lowe said there were a range of factors at play.

“It’s gone up because of drought. It’s gone up because China is drinking a lot more coffee … It’s gone up because we buy coffee in US dollars and the New Zealand exchange rate has just dropped a little, and that just makes it a bit more of a pinch,” he told Morning Report.

“It’s gone up because freight gets hard with a few wars, and so instability in the supply chain and commodity traders see coffee as a great way to make money. We’re seeing a 300 percent increase in the cost of green beans compared to this time a year to a year-and-a-half ago. And that’s incredibly high.”

With instant coffee specifically, Lowe said global corporates like Nestle had two- to three-year contracts with growers which were being renewed amid such cost pressures, “which is why you’re seeing it spike so aggressively all at once”.

Lowe said for a long time farmers had been selling much of their product at below cost, offsetting that by working “with brands like Coffee Supreme at the specialty level to create a higher quality product and get a better margin as a mix”.

“But what they’re doing now, because of their confidence in the market over the last 12 months, is they’re planting trees, which is great, so… supply will go up.

“But it’s a crop – it takes two to three years to bear really great fruit. And so while we’re seeing good signs now, we won’t benefit from that for a year or so.”

Speciality coffee products tend to move around in price less, he said, while instant coffee “goes up and down on the commodity markets way more, so it’s more volatile”.

“We’re working really hard with farmers, with our factories and with our process to keep costs down where we can.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Our Changing World: Mixing oil and water, the greener way

Source: Radio New Zealand

Some of the Dot Ingredients team in the lab at AUT that they are currently working out of. Claire Concannon

Oil and water famously don’t mix – until surfactants get involved. These molecules act as tiny brokers between two opposites, one end binding to the oil and the other to water, allowing shampoos, detergents, creams and paints to form smooth, stable blends.

But most of the world’s surfactants come from sources with an environmental cost. “Currently 95 percent of surfactants are either derived from the petrochemical industry, so from fossil fuels, or from palm oil,” says Dr Jack Chen, associate professor of chemistry at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). “The rest are derived from food crops, which we want to avoid because it competes with food production.”

Chen and his team have found a new way to make surfactants from cellulose – the fibre found in plants – and in 2024 they launched a start-up, Dot Ingredients, to take their discovery beyond the lab.

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Currently, the nine-employee company is based in a lab at AUT. The particles are made here by first dissolving the cellulose, coaxing it into tiny spheres called nanoparticles, coating these nanoparticles in plant oil, and then finally peeling the oil from one half of the sphere to leave part of it oil-loving and the other water-loving.

Once a batch is made the team test them in the lab for their ability to form an emulsion – a stable mixture of oil and water.

Chen and the team have high hopes for their ‘celluspheres’ (their name for these cellulose particle surfactants) to be used in many different products and industries, but to start they are focused on the cosmetic industry.

“There’s a lot more demand, both from the surfactant producers, from the cosmetic brands, as well as consumers themselves, for greener and more sustainable ingredients,” says Chen. The industry’s higher margins also make it an ideal testing ground before scaling up for cheaper, higher-volume products like paints or detergents.

The company wants to target the cosmetic industry first. Claire Concannon

Even though they are tiny – a human hair is 50-100,000 times wider than a nanoparticle – these new particle surfactants are still larger than existing surfactant molecules.

Head of product Dr Victor Yim has been putting the particles to test in the lab by creating serums and lotions. Having previously worked in product development in a skin care company, Victor knows what to look for, and he’s interested in the differences between traditional surfactants, and their new, larger particle surfactants. “There’s a lot of exciting applications,” he says. “We can make something milky thin that molecular surfactants can’t really do as well.”

For now, they are sourcing cellulose from wood pulp – which is made from wood chips and used to make paper. Something they are investigating, with researchers at the University of Auckland, is whether they might be able to use waste from other industries instead. For example, could they use the cellulose in ‘grape marc’ – the leftover grape skins and stems from winemaking – thereby turning wine waste into a sellable sustainable surfactant.

Currently Dot Ingredients has funding support to get to March 2026, and scaling up production is the next challenge. “We’re still very small-scale, so 100 gram batches, but with the capacity to go up to one kilogram,” says Chen. “Our goal is that in two years’ time we’d be able to make 20 kilogram batches, and that’s enough to serve a couple of product lines in a cosmetic brand.”

They are also experimenting with different types of surfactants – positively or negatively charged, or both, and exploring temperature-responsive variations that could adapt their properties on demand.

While Chen describes himself as “primarily an academic with lots of ideas”, this start-up opportunity to bring something out of the lab into “reality” has energised him “I’m really, really enjoying this journey and it’s kind of sparked our creativity and we think we might have even other startups in the pipeline.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Black Ferns star Ruahei Demant heading to Britain

Source: Radio New Zealand

Black Ferns Ruahei Demant. Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz

Black Ferns co-captain Ruahei Demant is heading to Britain to help develop her game.

Demant will play for the Bristol Bears on a four month deal starting later this month.

A former World Player of the Year, Demant is one of just three players to have won 50 caps for the Black Ferns

Bristol head coach Scott Lawson said Ruahei was a “genuinely world-class player”.

“Her vision, leadership and ability to influence games at the highest level set her apart and we can’t wait to welcome her into our group later this month.

“You don’t become World Player of the Year without being something truly special, and her experience with the Black Ferns will bring immense value to our environment both on and off the pitch.

Lawson said Demant’s arrival would help ease a number of injuries they were dealing with.

The 30-year-old heads to Britain with the full blessing of New Zealand Rugby.

“This is a great development opportunity for Ruahei to spend time in a different environment and experience a different competition and style of play,” NZR Head of Women’s High Performance Hannah Porter said.

“We believe it will be highly beneficial to her both as a player and person and look forward to seeing those benefits when she returns to New Zealand for international duty with the Black Ferns in April’s Pacific Four tournament, and the upcoming Super Rugby Aupiki season in June.”

Demant was named World Player of the Year in 2022 after helping the Black Ferns to the 2021 World Cup title.

She was a part of the side that finished third at this year’s World Cup in Britain.

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Cricket: Daryl Mitchell to miss rest of West Indies series

Source: Radio New Zealand

Black Cap Daryl Mitchell takes a catch. Andrew Cornaga / www.photosport.nz / Photosport Ltd 2025

Black Caps batter Daryl Mitchell will miss the rest of the ODI series against West Indies because of injury.

Mitchell experienced discomfort in his thigh while scoring his seventh ODI century in Sunday’s seven-run win over West Indies at Hagley Oval.

He didn’t field in the Windies innings.

Mitchell remained in Christchurch on Monday as the rest of the squad travelled to Napier for the second game on Wednesday.

The scan revealed a minor groin tear which will require two-weeks rehabilitation.

A New Zealand Cricket statement said the prognosis means that Mitchell should recover in time for the three-Test series against West Indies starting at Hagley Oval on 2 December.

Canterbury batter Henry Nicholls, who was called in as cover, will remain with the squad for the remainder of the series.

“He has been our standout performer in the ODI format so far this summer, so he’ll be missed for two important matches,” said coach Rob Walter.

“Henry has been in top form in the Ford Trophy and is an experienced international cricketer, so it’s great to welcome him back into the side.”

The third game is in Hamilton on Saturday.

West Indies then play a tour match against a selection side in Lincoln next week before the first Test.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand