Posts Tagged ‘Primary industries’
Submission to the Process Heat in New Zealand: Opportunities and Barriers to Lowering Emissions
While the Process Heat in NZ report covers a lot of useful points, and while a few organisations have already achieved significant reductions in their emissions, for many others fossil fuels remain the simplest, lease expensive and best understood option to provide heat. Moving away from them would require capital funding, installation of new equipment and processes, and the expertise to achieve this. If the carbon price were sufficient to drive change, then this change would happen.
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Good Intentions? Reviewing the Government’s New Emissions Reduction Plan
New Zealand’s first emissions reduction plan was released by the Ministry for the Environment on 16 May 2022. An expert panel offered its reaction and comments on the government’s emission reduction targets and on the policies and strategies to reduce emissions for sectors such as transport, energy, waste, building construction and agriculture. Challenges lie ahead if we are to make an appropriate contribution to global efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.
Read MoreA New Perspective on the Importance of Methane in New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Recent analysis shows that in the relatively short timeframe available to curb our carbon emissions, it is even more important than we thought to get on top of our methane emissions. This is not an easy message to get across in New Zealand, which relies heavily on its agricultural economy.
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Carbon Dynamics in New Zealand’s Native Forests
Native forests play an important role in storing and sequestering carbon in the New Zealand landscape. They do not sequester carbon as quickly as pine forests but can provide significant carbon stores and sinks, as well as a range of other benefits.
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Climate Change and Primary Industry in New Zealand
The annual carbon dioxide equivalent of total global emissions is about 49 Gigatonnes (49 thousand million tonnes), using figures from 2010. Of this, ‘Agriculture’ produced about 11% (mostly as methane, but also N2O). Other ‘Land use,’ including carbon dioxide release from forest and peat burning, produced about 10%.
Read MoreThe Importance Of Methane
Concern about the emissions of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) that causes Climate Change focuses primarily on carbon dioxide (CO2), which is an unavoidable consequence of burning fossil fuels. However, methane (CH4) is an increasingly important contributor to Climate Change.
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