[As published in July/August 2026 BayBuzz magazine.]
Did you know the Ministry for the Environment turns 40 this year? Did you also know it’s the last anniversary it will celebrate?
In late May a bill was voted through Parliament to disestablish the ministry and fold it into the new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions, and Transport – MCERT for those who prefer acronyms. The new ‘mega ministry’ structure came into effect on 1 July.
Ministry’s impact
Having a stand-alone ministry focussed on the environment, climate action, and waste reduction isn’t a unique arrangement in the OECD, but seems fitting, given New Zealand’s image on the global stage – both in terms of tourism and our high-quality primary industry products.
MfE began with a single staff member and over its 40 years its knowledgeable and dedicated team helped shape some hugely impactful policy initiatives by various governments.
It even won an award in 2021, taking the Science Communicators Association of New Zealand award for Excellence in Science Communication, alongside Stats NZ. The award was a result of the Our Atmosphere and Climate 2020 report, which was hailed as “an outstanding example of communication of science to a non-science audience.”
Waste reduction
The Waste Management Act 2008 is a landmark piece of legislation which enabled improvements across both council and industry and created the single biggest change in the way the country tackles its poor waste minimisation track record.
This act enables critical initiatives like the waste levy and the associated Waste Minimisation Fund, standardised kerbside recycling, product bans like the single use plastic bag ban, and regulated product stewardship like the Tyrewise scheme.
The waste levy and Waste Minimisation Fund were created to work as a carrot and a stick. The levy was increased and expanded in 2021 and is applied to the majority of the country’s landfills. The levy makes up a portion of the cost you pay when disposing of waste at landfill.
Funds from the levy are then split equally between councils and the Waste Minimisation Fund – a contestable fund for waste reduction initiatives. The concept is quite elegant; money paid to dispose of waste is used to prevent waste in the future.
Unfortunately, it’s been somewhat watered down as the scope of what councils can use their funding for was recently expanded beyond waste minimisation.
The standardisation of kerbside recycling was another important waste minimisation win for MfE. It means that what we can put out for recycling each week is the same around almost the whole country.
The potentially most impactful, but so far least used part of the Act, is regulated product stewardship – the area we at 3R focus on. In 2020 the then Minister for the Environment set in motion the creation of regulated product stewardship schemes for tyres, e-waste, single-use plastic packaging, refrigerant gases, farm plastic, and agrichemicals and their containers.
So far, only one regulated scheme is operating (Tyrewise), but there is growing momentum for regulated schemes for large batteries, agrichemicals and their containers, and farm plastic to come online in the near future.
Climate change
As the importance of taking action on climate change became better understood, MfE took a central role, advising the Government, coordinating strategy across ministries, and creating policy and budgets.
The Climate Change Response Act 2002 was created to establish a legal framework for New Zealand to meet its international obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This was effectively superseded by the Paris Agreement in 2015.
In 2019 the Zero Carbon Act was added as a large amendment to the original Act so the country can meet its obligations under the Paris Agreement.
This Act was a world first in how it separated short and long-lived greenhouse gases, using what is known as the Two Baskets Approach to set different targets covering primarily biogenic methane and carbon dioxide. The Act works alongside the Emissions Reduction Plan (currently in its second iteration), which sets out the strategy on how to decarbonise every sector of the economy.
It’s important to remember that emissions reduction isn’t just about tackling climate change. It’s also vital for New Zealand’s exports as free trade agreements with key markets are conditional on meeting our international commitments.
Resource management
The now much maligned Resource Management Act (RMA) was, at the time, hailed as a game changer by unifying dozens of laws into a single framework with sustainable management at its core. It has since been heavily amended, making it a particularly dense and difficult to navigate piece of legislation with over 400 sections.
Who’s responsible for environmental policy now?
The ministry’s statutory functions have now been transferred to the Secretary for the Environment. In this case this is MCERT’s inaugural chief executive Jeremy Lightfoot – the former Secretary for Corrections and Chief Executive of the Department of Corrections.
The new Ministry is still answerable to the Minister for the Environment Hon Nicola Grigg, for these responsibilities.
We recently hosted the Minister at our Karamu Road office in Hastings – her first ministerial visit in the role. I was impressed with her engagement and eagerness to learn about not only what we (3R Group) do in the product stewardship and circular economy space, but how government plays an important role.
We also gave her an update on Tyrewise, the first national product stewardship scheme for collecting and recycling tyres (which 3R manages) and where the large energy storage battery project is at.
There’s an argument to be made that folding MfE into MCERT can create better coordination across different ministries and levels of government. The Government has asserted this, as well as efficiencies from removing duplication.
On the other hand, the 580 submissions opposed to the bill which scrapped MfE argued it will result in the loss of independent environmental advice and advocacy, decrease the focus on the environment, create potential conflicts of interest, and reduce the capability and capacity of Government to respond to environmental pressures. It’s worth noting there were 585 submissions, with just five supporting the bill.
Will this be a good move for the environment, the economy on which it relies, and country as a whole? Only time will tell.
Dominic works at 3R, which designs, implements and manages product stewardship schemes for individual businesses or industry-wide groups. They also help businesses take a fresh look at their waste to first minimise and then recover what would otherwise be wasted.
