For the third successive year New Zealand’s gross carbon emissions have fallen, with the latest drop equivalent to three times the emissions produced by domestic airflights in 2022.
The Ministry for the Environment’s latest greenhouse gas inventory reveals that in 2022 there was a 4% decline from 2021’s emissions, coming after a 0.1% drop in 2021 compared to 2020.
According to the data, a major cause of the declines relate to the amount of renewable electricity generation the country generates. Significantly less coal and gas were used in 2022 due to the wetter conditions experienced that year, boosting hydro electricity generation capability.
With the wet came more wind, with wind generation also boosted, but accounting for only about 6.5% of total generation capacity.
Agriculture remained the country’s largest contributor for 2022, accounting for 53% of all gross emissions, some way ahead of energy emissions at 37%.
There was, however, a small decline of 1.4% in agriculture’s carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, attributed to the fall in the numbers of sheep, and reduced nitrogen fertiliser use.
Interestingly, emissions from road transport declined by 1.6% due to lower petrol consumption, despite estimated kilometres travelled remaining largely the same.
Forestry absorbed slightly less of these emissions in 2022 compared to 2021, but net emissions were also slightly lower than 2021, at 50.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
Almost a quarter of NZ’s gross emissions were absorbed by forestry and are heavily influenced by forest planting cycles.
This story has been updated to correct the change in gross emissions from 2020 to 2021.
