Emissions trends by sector

Read the long description for Trends in New Zealand’s gross greenhouse gas emissions (in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, Mt CO2-e) by sector from 1990 to 2019
Figure 5 is a stacked area graph that shows trends in New Zealand’s gross greenhouse gas emissions by sector from 1990 to 2019. Emissions are represented in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
In particular, it shows:
The emissions contribution from Tokelau is too small to be included in the figure.
Read the long description for Absolute change in New Zealand’s gross greenhouse gas emissions (Mt CO2-e) by sector from 1990 to 2019.
Figure 6 is a line graph that shows the absolute change in New Zealand’s gross greenhouse gas emissions by sector from 1990 levels to 2019. The change is measures in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
In particular, it shows:
Emissions from Tokelau are very small and have changed too little to be visible on the graph, which appears as a flat line.
Read the long description for Trends in New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions (in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, Mt CO2-e) by sector from 1990 to 2019.
Figure 7 is a line graphs that shows trends in New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions by sector from 1990 to 2019. Emissions are measured in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
In particular, it shows:
Between 1990 and 2019, emissions from the Agriculture sector increased by 17.1 per cent. This is primarily due to an 82.0 per cent increase in the national dairy herd since 1990 and an increase in the application of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser of 662.7 per cent since 1990. These increases have been partially offset by decreases in the populations of sheep, beef cattle and deer by 53.6, 15.3 and 17.0 per cent, respectively, since 1990.
In 2019, emissions from the Agriculture sector increased slightly (by around 0.4 per cent). This increase was mainly due to increased emissions from beef cattle and liming (where ground limestone is applied to agricultural soils as fertiliser). Emissions from other contributors fell, such as from sheep, dairy cattle, and urea, but these decreases were not enough to offset the overall increase in agricultural emissions.
Emissions from the Energy sector in 2019 were 44.3 per cent higher than in 1990. Most of this increase came from road transport (an increase in emissions of 96.2 per cent), and the use of fossil fuels for manufacturing and construction. The trend shows emissions increasing until 2005, after which they are relatively stable.
Between 2018 and 2019, emissions from the Energy sector increased by 5.3 per cent. The increase was primarily caused by an 11 per cent increase in emissions from manufacturing and construction.
There was also a 20.8 per cent increase in public electricity and heat production emissions. This increase was primarily due to an increase in natural gas-fired and coal-fired electricity generation in response to lower levels of hydro generation. The increase was partially offset by decreases from domestic aviation and road transportation, which decreased by 55.1 kt CO2-e (5.1 per cent) and 29.1 kt CO22-e (0.2 per cent) respectively.
Emissions from the IPPU sector in 2019 were 42.9 per cent higher than in 1990. The increase was mainly caused by phasing out ozone-depleting compounds under the Montreal Protocol and replacing them with hydrofluorocarbons in refrigeration and air conditioning. It was also due to an increased use of household and commercial air conditioning in New Zealand. In addition, carbon dioxide emissions from mineral, chemical and metal production have gradually increased due to the growth in output.
Between 2018 and 2019, emissions from IPPU decreased by 1.4 per cent. This change was the net result of a decrease in emissions from the product uses as substitutes for ozone-depleting substances category (5.8 per cent), offset by small increases in all other significant categories driven by varying production rates.
In 2019, Waste sector emissions were 16.3 per cent below 1990 levels. Annual emissions increased between 1990 and 2002 because of the ongoing growth in population and economic activity, and have declined steadily since 2004. This is mainly due to ongoing improvements in managing solid waste disposal at municipal landfills, particularly in landfill gas recovery.
Waste sector emissions in 2019 were 48.4 kt CO2-e (1.4 per cent) lower than in 2018. This decrease is largely the result of decreases in methane emissions in the solid waste disposal category, due to changes in the composition of waste disposed to municipal landfills.
There are two ways of calculating emissions and removals from the LULUCF sector. The first is used for reporting net emissions under the UNFCCC. The second is to report on only a subset of LULUCF emissions and removals in accordance with accounting rules under the Kyoto Protocol (KP-LULUCF). This latter is a method used to track emissions and removals towards New Zealand’s emissions reduction target for the 2013-2020 period. This estimate is referred to as net target emissions.
In 2019, the LULUCF sector was a net carbon sink with net removals of 27.4 Mt CO2-e. Yearly fluctuations in emissions and removals from LULUCF are mainly driven by harvesting and deforestation in production forests, and historically variable rates of new forest plantings.
Removals from the LULUCF sector in 2019 were 14.2 per cent higher than they were in 1990. This change is largely due to:
Between 2018 and 2019, net removals from the LULUCF sector increased by 2.5 per cent (-26.8 to 27.4 Mt CO2-e). The decrease in emissions was largely due to an increase in the production of harvested wood products. This decrease was partially offset by the increase in emissions driven by land conversion from forest land to grassland.
A carbon sink is anything that removes more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits.
Read the long description for Trend in New Zealand’s net emissions (in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, Mt CO2-e) from the LULUCF sector from 1990 to 2019 (under UNFCCC reporting).
Figure 8 is a line graph that shows the trend in net emissions from the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sector from 1990 to 2019 (under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting) measured in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
In particular, it shows:
For the period 2013 to 2020, New Zealand has taken a target under the UNFCCC rather than under the Kyoto Protocol. This target is to reduce emissions to 5 per cent below 1990 gross GHG levels by 2020, managed as an emissions budget across the period. New Zealand will apply the Kyoto Protocol framework of rules in accounting for its 2020 target under the UNFCCC. To learn more about how New Zealand reports and measures progress towards our targets and other emissions reporting, go to our webpage on New Zealand’s emissions reduction targets.
This means that New Zealand will count net removals from the activities specified in both Article 3.3 and Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol, covering afforestation/ reforestation/deforestation and forest management, respectively. This is a subset of emissions and removals reported for LULUCF under the UNFCCC and is used in the net position report to monitor progress towards our 2020 target.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It contains internationally binding emissions reduction targets for the developed country Parties that are listed in its Annex B.
Afforestation is the establishment of a forest in an area where no forest has been for at least 50 years.
Reforestation is the re-establishment of a forest in an area where forest was converted to other land uses during the past 50 years. For the first and second commitment periods of the Kyoto Protocol (2008–2020), reforestation is limited to areas that were non-forest on 31 December 1989.
Deforestation is a change in land use from forest to non-forest (eg, farming) for any period of time.
Forest management is the management of forests that existed before 1990.
In 2019, the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act set into law new domestic 2050 targets including for biogenic methane. Biogenic methane refers to all methane emissions from the Agriculture and Waste sectors (as reported in the Inventory). The current targets for biogenic methane are to reduce biogenic methane emissions by 24 to 47 per cent below 2017 levels by 2050, as well as 10 per cent below 2017 biogenic methane emissions by 2030.
All units in Mt CO2-e using the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report’s 100-year Global Warming Potential for methane (25) |
2017 |
2019 |
Gross methane (not including the LULUCF sector) |
34.5 |
34.6 |
Biogenic methane |
33.5 |
33.7 |
· Agriculture methane |
30.3 |
30.6 |
· Waste methane |
3.2 |
3.1 |
Emissions trends by sector
April 2021
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