New Zealand’s GHG emissions and removals in 2019 from each sector is shown in Figure 3. Tokelau is an overseas dependant territory. All emissions from Tokelau are reported together in the Other sector in the Inventory.

Figure 3: Breakdown of New Zealand’s emissions (in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, Mt CO2-e) by sector in 2019.

Figure 1 Greenhouse Gas Snapshot
Net emissions from the LULUCF sector are expressed as a negative number because the sector removes more greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere than it emits.

Read the long description for Breakdown of New Zealand’s emissions (in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, Mt CO2-e) by sector in 2019.

Figure 3 is a horizontal bar graph that shows a breakdown of New Zealand’s GHG emissions by sector in 2019. Emissions are represented in million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. In particular, it shows:

  • The Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry sector offset 33 per cent of gross emissions, with net removals of 27.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
  • The Agriculture sector was responsible for 48 per cent of gross emissions, with emissions of 39.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
  • The Energy sector was responsible for 42 per cent of gross emissions, with emissions of 34.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent
  • The Industrial Processes and Product Use sector was responsible for 6 per cent of gross emissions, with emissions of 5.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
  • The Waste sector was responsible for 4 per cent of gross emissions, with emissions of 3.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
  • Tokelau was responsible for 0.005 per cent of gross emissions, with emissions of 0.004 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Text Box 1: Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) definition

Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) is a measure for comparing different GHGs based on the heating effect of each gas relative to an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. CO2-e is used for expressing emissions of different GHGs in a common unit, which allows them to be reported and compared consistently. The 1990-2019 Inventory uses the 100-year global warming potential values from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report.

See Annex III of UNFCCC decision 24/CP.19