The Ministry for the Environment (MfE; Māori: Manatū Mō Te Taiao) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with advising the New Zealand Government on policies and issues affecting the environment, in addition to the relevant environmental laws and standards. The Environment Act 1986 is the statute that establishes the Ministry.
Description
Functions assigned by Section 31 of the Environment Act 1986 include advising the Minister for the Environment on all aspects of environmental administration, obtaining and disseminating information, and generally providing advice on environmental matters. Since 1988, the Ministry of the Environment has coordinated New Zealand's interdepartmental policy response to climate change.
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.
The Ministry for the Environment administer a number of environmental funds: Waste Minimisation Fund Environmental Legal Assistance Fund Contaminated Sites Remediation Fund
It runs the Green Ribbon Awards, which have been given out by the Minister for the Environment since 1990.
The Ministry owns the Environmental Choice New Zealand ecolabel, but it is administered independently by the New Zealand Ecolabelling Trust.
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.
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.
As a response to the ministry for the environment, in 1991 the Resource Management Act was passed to enforce resource sustainability and environmental protection on a legal platform.However, in 2023 the government is repealing the Resource Management Act to enhance new laws into this reform as a way of managing the environment and the pressing issue of climate change.
Ministers
The Ministry serves two portfolios and four ministers.