The politics of climate change
OPINION: The Financial Times, a major international newspaper, featured New Zealand on its front page at the beginning of June. It wasn't for the right reasons.
The figures, which track the March 2022 quarter (January 2022 – March 2022), revealed the seasonally adjusted greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions had increased 1.7% on the previous quarter.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing saw the largest decrease, however, in emissions, down 0.8%.
Meanwhile, Stats NZ says electricity generation and manufacturing were the main culprit for the rise.
“One of the main sources of fluctuation in New Zealand’s total emissions is the variation in the energy sources used for electricity generation,” says Stats NZ environmental-economic accounts manager Stephen Oakley.
“The increase and then decrease in renewable share of electricity generation over the last two quarters has continued to create volatility in New Zealand’s overall production of emissions,” Oakley says.
