Origins As stated, the Ministry for the Environment was established under the 1986 Environment Act which was implemented to encourage preventive measures for the protection of the environment. The Ministry for the Environment was established to ensure broad thinking about the environmental issues that plague our world and continue to do so even more severely in the 21st century. The measures the ministry for the environment take time to consider and focus on include intrinsic values of ecosystems, including principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, values people place on the environment, needs of future generations and sustainability of natural and physical resources. In 1997 the Ministry released New Zealand's first
State of the Environment report. This was followed up in 2008 by a second report titled
Environment New Zealand 2007. Chapter 13 of this report was removed before final publication but was leaked to the
Green Party. After news media reported the existence of the omitted chapter, the Ministry placed the contents on its website. The
Environmental Protection Authority was set up in 2011 to carry out some of the environmental regulatory functions of the MfE as well as other government departments.
Climate change policies The Ministry for the Environment has introduced several policies to address climate change and protect New Zealand's natural environment. The
Zero Carbon Act, passed in 2019, sets a framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The act established the
Climate Change Commission, which is a crown entity that provides independent advice to the government on emissions reduction targets and strategies. The commission has been criticised by
Greenpeace for not going far enough when making recommendations for agricultural methane reduction. In July 2025, an independent reference group established by the Ministry released several recommendations for the Government's climate mitigation policies. These proposed policies included halting buy-outs for homes damaged by floods and other weather-related events over a 20-year transition period and adopting a "beneficiary pay" model towards adaptation measures such as flood schemes, sea walls and blue-green infrastructure.
Victoria University of Wellington emeritus professor Jonathan Boston described the proposed phasing out of the Government's "buy out" policy for weather-damaged homes as "morally bankrupt."
Agricultural policies In 2003 the
Fifth Labour Government decided to attempt to introduce a levy on farm animals and their methane emissions, in order to fund research on how to reduce farm emissions. The levy would have cost 9c for mature sheep, 54c for each mature beef cow, and 72c for each dairy cow. This was widely protested by farmers and the opposition. Eventually after sustained criticism, and unpopularity of the policy, on 17 October 2003 Labour said it found alternative sources to fund emissions research, and would not introduce the levy. In 2018, the
Interim Climate Change Committee was established, to look at various options of agriculture pricing. As the combination of Methane (43.7%) and Nitrous Oxide (10.7%) emissions make up a majority of New Zealand's emissions, reducing Agricultural emissions would be necessary to lower New Zealand's carbon footprint and currently policy left the majority of emissions untaxed. On 11 October 2022 the Sixth Labour Government announced its decision to pursue a farm-based levy, with a backup ETS processor levy if the farm levy was not ready by 2025. They also announced consultation on the policy, which lasted from 11 October to 18 November and were posted on 21 December 2022. The processor levy backup under the ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) was where the levy would simply be decided by the ETS, and handed on to processors, such as slaughterhouses or importers and producers of fertiliser. Initially considered by the 2018 Interim Climate Change Committee, and this was left as a backup option, in case the farm-based levy was not in place by 2025. the commitment to have farm level emissions reported by late 2024, and various changes from consultation, such as the decision for carbon sequestration to give a reduction in the levy if it was scientifically valid. The
National Party committed before the
2023 New Zealand general election to implement a sustainable pricing system for agriculture by 2030, and to start measuring farm level emissions by 2025 . The National Party eventually formed a government after the 2023 election.
Proposed dissolution In mid-February 2026, the
RMA Reform Minister
Chris Bishop and the Environment Minister
Penny Simmonds confirmed the
Sixth National Government would introduce legislation to dissolve the Ministry for the Environment as part of the Government's plans to merge the ministry's functions into the new
Ministry of Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport. Bishop said that the merger was needed to address a "fragmented and uncoordinated" bureaucracy. The Government's merger plans were criticised by
University of Canterbury political scientist Bronwyn Hayward, who expressed concern that the merger could lead to the loss of "the threads of accountability, the skill, and cohesive delivery of effective policy." The
Labour Party's environment spokesperson
Rachel Brooking and the
Green Party's environment spokesperson
Lan Pham accused the Government of de-prioritising the environment. == Ministers==