NZ’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduce – but room for some sectors to do more

The Ministry of the Environment (MfE) has today released the 1990-2022 New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Snapshot.

Our initial thoughts on the report are as follows:

The headline is that gross greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by 4 percent in 2022 – the lowest since 1999.

Behind this headline, and driving the decrease, was an 8 percent (2.5 Mt CO2-e) decrease in gross emissions from energy. A wet year helped – as the hydro schemes could operate, reducing our reliance on gas and coal.

Nearly a quarter of the decrease (0.6 Mt CO2-e) came from the closure of the oil refinery at Marsden Point – something the Government is actively thinking about reopening. So, we’ll have to see what happens in the future. The closure of Marsden Point also contributed to lower emissions for the Industrial Processing category.

Emissions from waste were down – largely as a result of improvements in capturing landfill gases and reduced garden, food and paper waste going to landfill. Well done to local government and communities.

Gross emissions from road transport also decreased – despite vehicle kilometers remaining the same. The report isn’t conclusive on why this and in what combination. It suggests it could be changing driving patterns or more fuel-efficient cars.

Agricultural emissions decreased by 1.4 percent – similar to the previous year (1.3 percent) – largely driven by less use of synthetic fertiliser and the long-running decrease in beef cattle and sheep populations. The price of fertiliser and afforestation incentives under the Emissions Trading Scheme have had a role to play.

On the other side of the ledger we didn’t manage to get the balance right between harvesting and planting forestry resulting a decrease of 6 percent in net removals – leaving us with net emissions of 59.2 Mt CO2-e.

The Report doesn’t tell us if we are on track to reach our Paris Targets – we need to wait for the projections to be updated in December 2024. But we know we’re not.

The full report can be found at New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2022.