1.5°C compatible pathways
New Zealand updated its NDC in November 2021 with a stronger 2030 target. The updated NDC is not Paris Agreement compatible, and it is equivalent to a 38% reduction from 2005 levels excluding LULUCF.
The Minister for Climate Change requested the Climate Change Commission to advise on a 1.5°C consistent target. The Commission did not recommend a specific target, but that it should be “much more than 36%” below 2005 levels by 2030, leaving the decision to policy makers.22 These recommendations informed the NDC update, which failed to achieve a 1.5°C consistent target. 1.5°C compatible pathways require New Zealand to reduce emissions by 51% below 2005 levels by 2030, equivalent to around 41 MtCO₂e in 2030 excluding LULUCF.
The target has questionable environmental integrity on two counts.1 It sets the 2030 net emissions target based on gross 2005 levels. Including the forestry carbon sink in 2005 and excluding it in 2030 creates a higher baseline. Secondly, New Zealand uses different accounting approach for forestry which effectively further lowers the target.
New Zealand released a consultation document on the first emissions reduction plan to meet its 2022-2025 emissions budget, seeking ideas for emissions reductions, with the plan scheduled for release end of May 2022.2 However, the government has been clear that it will have to meet as much as two thirds – or ~100MtCO₂e – of its target through buying international carbon offsets.4
New Zealand emissions need to immediately peak and rapidly decline and it needs to ramp up its climate policy and targets. A key focus should be agriculture, as this sector is responsible for the largest share of emissions. Other key sub sectors include transport and energy use in industry as high emissions intensive sectors.33
Long term pathway
In 2019, New Zealand legislated its “net zero” emissions target into law under the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act. The target aims for net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases other than biogenic methane35 by 2050. The Act also targets 24-47% below 2017 biogenic methane emissions by 2050.
Setting a more lenient target for the agriculture sector is not aligned to a Paris Agreement compatible pathway when considering the huge share of emissions produced. To align to a Paris Agreement compatible pathway, New Zealand should start reducing GHG emissions rapidly to around 16 MtCO₂e/yr by 2050 excluding LULUCF which translates to 81% below 2005 levels. In contrast, the current long term targets are estimated to reach 49 to 68 MtCO₂e/yr by 2050 excluding LULUCF, which is only a reduction of 16-40% compared to 2005 levels.1 When considering projected LULUCF sinks, net zero GHG could be reached before 2040.
Taking a slower pathway or delaying peaking emissions would require costly negative emissions technologies to compensate. Most of the analysed 1.5°C compatible pathways show a fully decarbonised energy sector by 2040 and contribute negative emissions thereafter. The largest share of remaining emissions by 2050 will be from agriculture. Paris Agreement compatible scenarios show agriculture emissions ranging from 22-36 MtCO₂e by 2050, mostly coming from methane, which need to be compensated by negative emissions
1 Climate Action Tracker. New Zealand. November 2021 update. Climate Target Update Tracker. Climate Action Tracker. (2021).
2 Ministry for the Environment. Te hau mārohi ki anamata Transitioning to a low-emissions and climate-resilient future Have your say and shape the emissions reduction plan. (2021).
3 Climate Action Tracker. New Zealand. September 2021 update. Climate Action Tracker. (2021).
4 Daalder, M. New Paris Target Might Actually Reduce Emissions, A Bit. Newsroom, (2021).
5 Gütschow, J., Jeffery, L., Gieseke, R. & Günther, A. The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1850-2017). V.2.1. GFZ Data Serv. (2019).
6 United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. Summary Of GHG Emissions For New Zealand. 0–3 (2021).
7 Ministry for the Environment. New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990-2018. New Zealand Government. (2020).
8 Ministry for the Environment. New Zealand’s Fourth Biennial Report Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (2019).
9 Woods, M., Parker, D. & Shaw, J. Government delivers next phase of climate action. Beehive. (2021).
10 Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment. Energy in New Zealand 20. (2020).
11 Climate Bonds Initiative. AUS & NZ Green Infrastructure list. Climate Bonds Initiative. (2018).
12 Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment. Energy strategies for New Zealand. New Zealand Government. (2021).
13 EECA. Clean and Clever Energy Progress Report. (2020).
14 He Waka Eke Noa Steering Group. He Waka Eke Noa Discussion Document, Steering Group Discussion Document to support Partnership Targeted Engagement Nov/Dec 2021. (2021).
15 New Zealand Government. New Zealand’s Action on Climate Change. (2016).
16 New Zealand Government. Reducing government fleet emissions. New Zealand Government Procurement and Property. (2021).
17 New Zealand Government. Public sector to be carbon neutral by 2025. Beehive. (2020).
18 Ministry for Primary Industries. One Billion Trees Programme.
19 Beehive. New Zealand to phase down use of HFCs from 2020. Beehive. (2018).
20 Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment. Unlocking our energy productivity and renewable potential : New Zealand energy efficiency and conservation strategy 2017-2022. (2017).
21 Woods, M., Parker, D. & Shaw, J. Government delivers next phase of climate action. Beehive. (2021).
22 Climate Change Commission. Ināia tonu nei : a low emissions future for Aotearoa. (2021).
23 Woods, M. Major contract awarded to power NZ Battery investigation . Beehive. (2021).
24 New Zealand Government. A vision for hydrogen in New Zealand, Green Paper. (2019).
25 New Zealand Government. Building for climate change. Building Performance. (2021).
26 Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. Clean Car Discount overview. Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency. (2021).
27 Ministry of Transport. Climate change — emissions work programme New Zealand Government. (2021).
28 New Zealand Parliament. Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill 2021: Bills Digest 2654. New Zealand Parliament. (2021).
29 Ministry for the Environment. New Zealand’s projected greenhouse gas emissions to 2050. (2021).
30 Including the residual methane emissions left from the separate methane target for 2050.
31 According to national projections, LULUCF emissions could reach -26 to -31 MtCO₂e by 2040. See the Government 2020 for LULUCF projection estimates.30
32 While global cost-effective pathways assessed by the IPCC Special Report 1.5°C provide useful guidance for an upper-limit of emissions trajectories for developed countries, they underestimate the feasible space for such countries to reach net zero earlier. The current generation of models tend to depend strongly on land-use sinks outside of currently developed countries and include fossil fuel use well beyond the time at which these could be phased out, compared to what is understood from bottom-up approaches. The scientific teams which provide these global pathways constantly improve the technologies represented in their models – and novel CDR technologies are now being included in new studies focused on deep mitigation scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement. A wide assessment database of these new scenarios is not yet available; thus, we rely on available scenarios which focus particularly on BECCS as a net-negative emission technology. Accordingly, we do not yet consider land-sector emissions (LULUCF) and other CDR approaches which developed countries will need to implement in order to counterbalance their remaining emissions and reach net zero GHG are not considered here due to data availability.
33 See the Climate Action Tracker for full explanation.
35 Methane from agriculture and waste sectors.
36 According to national projections, LULUCF emissions could reach -36 to -41 MtCO₂e by 2040. See the Climate Action Tracker assessment on New Zealand (July 2020 update) for assumptions on LULUCF projections.
New Zealandʼs total GHG emissions
excl. LULUCF MtCO₂e/yr
- 1.5°C compatible pathways
- Middle of the 1.5°C compatible range
- Current policy projections
- 1.5°C emissions range
- Historical emissions
Energy system transformation
New Zealand needs to decarbonise its energy sector, including industry, transport and power to bring the country in line with a 1.5°C compatible pathway. An effective phase out of unabated fossil fuels is possible before 2050. Unabated fossil fuels (mainly natural gas) represented 60% of primary energy in 2019, and need to contract to between 22-43% by 2030. By 2030, renewables could represent up to 78% of primary energy, and up to 97% by 2050.
A fossil fuel phase out in primary energy by 2050 would require decarbonising the power sector from 82% renewables in 2019 to near 100% renewables by 2030. New Zealand would need to bring forward its current 100% renewables target by at least five years in order to align with a 1.5°C compatible pathway. The scale up of renewables is vital to decarbonise other sectors as they become electrified.
Transport and energy use in industry could be decarbonised through electrification, sector coupling and replacing fossil fuel feedstocks with renewable hydrogen. Energy efficiency measures could also reduce the demand for energy and the reliance on fossil fuels.
Some of the analysed scenarios show the option of deploying negative emissions technologies such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) almost immediately, and fossil fuels carbon capture and storage in future. These are highly unlikely, due to the high penetration of renewables, the unproven feasibility of BECCS, and the high costs of the technology.
New Zealandʼs primary energy mix
petajoule per year
- Negative emissions technologies via BECCS
- Unabated fossil
- Nuclear and/or fossil with CCS
- Renewables incl. biomass
New Zealandʼs total CO₂ emissions
excl. LULUCF MtCO₂/yr
- 1.5°C compatible pathways
- 1.5°C emissions range
- Middle of the 1.5°C compatible range
- Historical emissions
1.5°C compatible emissions benchmarks
Key emissions benchmarks of Paris compatible Pathways for New Zealand. The 1.5°C compatible range is based on the Paris Agreement compatible pathways from the IPCC SR1.5 filtered with sustainability criteria. The median (50th percentile) to 5th percentile and middle of the range are provided here. Relative reductions are provided based on the reference year.
Indicator | 2005 Reference year | 2019 | 2030 | 2040 | 2050 | Year of net zero incl. BECCS excl. LULUCF and novel CDR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total GHG Megatonnes CO₂ equivalent per year | 82 | 82 | 41 35 to 48 | 26 20 to 33 | 16 11 to 26 | 2066 |
Relative to reference year in % | −51% −57 to −42% | −69% −76 to −59% | −81% −87 to −69% | |||
Total CO₂ MtCO₂/yr | 38 | 37 | 16 13 to 18 | 6 2 to 9 | 1 −2 to 4 | 2058 2046 to 2066 |
Relative to reference year in % | −57% −67 to −51% | −84% −95 to −77% | −98% −107 to −90% |