Legislation
ture

New Zealand currently has only two legalised options for human body disposition: burial (in land or at sea) and cremation. There are more than 2,188 cemeteries in New Zealand, only 12 of which are registered natural burial cemeteries.

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Following public consultation, in 2021 government considered a range of options for modernising the legislation relating to death, burial, cremation and funerals in New Zealand, including the Burial and Cremation Act 1964, Cremation Regulations 1973 and the Health (Burial) Regulations 1946. Urupā (Māori burial grounds), registration of mortuaries, burial at sea and international transportation of bodies were out of scope of this review.

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Part of this discussion considered alternative forms of disposition (specifically naming aquamation and promession, but not terramation) which resulted in agreement that any alternate form of disposition would be assessed and legalised (or not) on a case-by-case basis and not allowed for in any general 'alternative disposition' Act.

 

New Zealanders consider climate change one of the greatest concerns of our age, and in 2020 the NZ government signed up to the Paris agreement, under which Aotearoa New Zealand’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and to pursue efforts to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.