Emissions reduction progress but work ahead

New Zealand is making progress to reduce its emissions but not nearly quickly enough, Climate Change minister James Shaw says.

Responding to the latest annual inventory of New Zealand’s greenhouse gases – which doesn’t show the COVID-19 impact or even how e-mobility is helping, Shaw says the country has a long way to go to reach zero net emissions by 2050.

He suggests it is possible to ally the post COVID-19 economic recovery with measures to solve climate change, as economic growth increased 3.2% from 2017-18 – the same period emissions fell.

“Right now, people are understandably worried about their immediate future, which is why we must continue to do everything we can to reduce the economic pressures people and business up and down the country are facing,” Shaw says.

“However, we can do that in a way that also helps the climate.

“We have an opportunity to change the quality of our economic growth and reduce its impact on the climate.”

Net emissions fell by 3% in 2018 compared to 2017 levels. Gross emissions in 2018 decreased by 1% on 2017 levels. However, between 1990 and 2018, gross emissions increased by 24% – road transport one of the biggest contributors.

Measures introduced by this government to help drive down emissions include the Zero Carbon Act, the Climate Change Commission’s creation, Emissions Trading Scheme reform, the first set of emissions budgets, billions of dollars invested in rail, light rail, buses, walking and cycling infrastructure; a Joint Action Plan for Primary Sector Emissions; the Billion Trees programme; and the end of new offshore fossil fuel exploration.

Shaw says the scale of what is needed to reach the 2050 goal exceeds what current policies will achieve.

The New Zealand Greenhouse Gas Inventory tracks human-generated emissions and removals in New Zealand since 1990, covering carbon dioxide (44% in 2018), methane (43%), nitrous oxide (10%) and fluorinated gases (2%).

The energy and agricultural sectors were the two largest contributors to New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions at 41% and 48% respectively.

The inventory is one of New Zealand’s mandatory reporting obligations under the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol.

As it takes about 15 months to collect and analyse the data for each year and prepare it for publication the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on emissions won’t be fully known until the inventory submission published in 2022.

Click here for more detail.