Imports account for half of NZ’s carbon footprint

Otautahi - Greenhouse gas emissions in imported goods and services to Aotearoa in 2019 reached 30,728 kilotonnes and accounted for 51 percent of our carbon footprint, Stats NZ says.

This rise was largely driven by the increasing emissions embodied in imported manufactured goods, which were up 5.6 percent from 2018.

Consumption-based emission statistics present a broader picture of how international trade, producers, and consumers influence New Zealand’s carbon footprint.

But the planet does not care if countries measure GHG emissions on what they produce, irrespective of who consumes it, or on what they consume, wherever it is produced.

New Zealand’s gross emissions from what it produces is around 80 m t CO2e p.a, less forestry sequestration, around 10 m t CO2e pa, so net 70 m t pa. The emissions embodied in what NZ consumes is around 60 m t p a.

This decade the world, including New Zealand, needs to reduce the emissions in what it produces and in what it consumes.

On either basis, consumption or production, it must significantly reduce emissions from transport, heat used in industry, emissions from agricultural and from energy.

New Zealand must develop new ways of earning its way in the world with less emissions and adopting lifestyles that reduce emissions in the goods and services it consumes, whether produced locally or imported.

By the middle of this century the poor nations will be those that rely on high emissions production.

In the same way low wages and child labour are not a sustainable source of prosperity, high emissions lifestyles and livelihoods are not sustainable.

It is in Kiwis’ self-interest to develop and adopt low emission lifestyles and livelihoods. Debates about measurement, production or consumption, obfuscate the obvious, less is better, sooner is better. The time to take action is now. But time is running out.