KiwiRail has announced it will replace its electric train fleet on the North Island main trunk line with diesel locomotives.

Paula Bennett says her appointment as Minister for Women shows the Government is taking women's rights seriously.

Tackling climate change is the "biggest economic opportunity" in US history, no matter who holds political office, Leonardo DiCaprio says.

COMMENT: New tectonic plates for Kaikoura would be a great way to start 2017 but if not world peace will do nicely.

As 2016 draws to a close, the NZ Science Media Centre picked some of the biggest national and international science stories that made headlines

This year is set to become New Zealand's hottest on record, breaking the previous record set in 1998, scientists say.

The Sundance Film Festival will open in January with a new climate-change movie from Al Gore - and the timing, unfortunately, could not be better.

The ice base from which the hole in the ozone layer was first detected is in danger of falling into a huge chasm, it has emerged.

COMMENT: Right now it's an unprecedented 22 degrees hotter than normal in the Arctic, and in just two years the North Pole could be completely gone.

A prominent NZ scientist explains why we should ignore alarmist claims that climate change will soon kill us all.

COMMENT: I had never, for one second, consciously entertained the idea that human extinction was conceivable in the near term.

New data has revealed a notable drop in the average Kiwi household's greenhouse gas emissions, as production of meat, dairy and electricity becomes more climate-friendly.

Scientists at the Scion Research Institute in Rotorua have developed a way to use sawdust to produce biofuel for the transportation sector. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

Scientists at the Scion Research Institute in Rotorua have developed a way to use sawdust to produce biofuel for the transportation sector. Made with funding from NZ On Air

Heavyweights lobby Government to set emission targets, create long-term plan and implement policies.

Political people are watching the chaos in Washington at the moment. But some people in the science community are watching the chaos in the Arctic.

The Arctic is superhot, even as a vast area of cold polar air has been displaced over Siberia.

COMMENT: The matter of international climate change - the most important energy-related issue facing us today.

New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 refugees from Australia remains on the table, the Government says, despite a new offer by the

Secretary of State John Kerry won't criticize Donald Trump's climate policies, but says the next US Govt "dare not avoid" the issue.

The Wellington community took to the water in kayaks and held banners onshore today, to throw an "unwelcoming party" for oil companies

As Donald Trump's presidential victory sinks in, Government and experts are starting to count the potential cost to New Zealand's climate change commitments, its defence ties, and even its core values.

The President Elect Donald Trump bodes well for farms and coal mines, but trade deals will be left in peril.

United Nations envoys yesterday gathered in Morocco for a second day of talks on putting the Paris Agreement into action.

Donald Trump has promised that as president he will honour the pledge stitched into his white and red baseball caps: Make America Great Again.

The hottest year on record globally in 2015 could be an average year by 2025 and beyond if carbon emissions continue to rise at the same rate, new research has found.

COMMENT: DiCaprio's documentary has been viewed more than six million times and will raise public consciousness.

The Government has again been accused of cheating to meet its climate-change commitments; this time around forestry accounting rules.

COMMENT: We've promised to cut carbon emissions, but all the options face problems.

The jobs of more than 100,000 New Zealanders are linked to the seas which circle the country.