June 2022
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Unsurprisingly, the Emissions Reduction Plan - released on May 16 - requires actions across every sector of the economy including transport, energy and industry, building and construction, agriculture, forestry, waste and fluorinated gases. Photo: Ministry for the Environment
Driving down emissions CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVES ANNOUNCED IN MAY ARE A CRITICAL PART OF THE EMISSIONS REDUCTION PLAN (ERP) THAT WILL PUT AOTEAROA ON THE PATH TO NET ZERO. BY JAMES PAUL RELEASED May 16, the ERP1 was dubbed by Finance Minister Hon Grant Robertson as the most the significant day in New Zealand’s journey to combat climate change. The Climate Change Minister, Hon James Shaw, said the plan “means our net-zero future is closer than ever before”. Titled Towards a productive, sustainable and inclusive economy, the ERP contains more than 300 actions to help New Zealand reduce its impact on the climate and enable the country to meet its first emissions budget. An emissions budget is a total quantity of emissions that is allowed to be released during an emissions budget period. These actions will be financed by the ERP’s creation of a $4.5 billion Climate Emergency Response Fund (CERF). The CERF will recycle revenues from the Emissions Trading Scheme 1
(ETS). Each emissions budget covers a period of five years (except the first emissions budget which covers the period 2022-2025), and will act as interim targets to reaching our 2050 emissions reduction targets. Cabinet agreed that the first three emissions budgets will be: • Emissions Budget 1 (2022–2025): 290 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gasses (72.4 megatonnes per year); • Emissions Budget 2 (2026–2030): 305 megatones (averages 61 megatonnes per year) [in principle]; and • Emissions Budget 3 (2031–2035): 240 megatonnes (48 megatonnes per year) [in principle].
https://environment.govt.nz/assets/publications/Files/Aotearoa-New-Zealands-first-emissions-reduction-plan-Table-of-actions.pdf
The first emissions budget equates to two megatonnes per year less than the five-year average leading up to this point (2017-2021), and 3.1 megatonnes less than projected emissions for 2022 to 2025. New Zealand’s legislated 2050 emissions reduction targets are: net zero greenhouse gas emissions (except biogenic methane); and a 24-47 per cent reduction in biogenic methane. Unsurprisingly, the ERP requires actions across every sector of the economy including transport, energy and industry, building and construction, agriculture, forestry, waste and fluorinated gases. And one such area that is exposed to the risks of climate change is agriculture. Cont. on page 8
