WELLINGTON, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Household emissions of greenhouse gases increased 19.3 percent from 2007 to 2017, mainly due to rising emissions from road transport, New Zealand’s statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.
In 2017, households accounted for 11 percent of total emissions, up from 9 percent in 2007, with the remaining 89 percent accounted for by industry, Stats NZ said.
“New Zealand households are becoming less efficient at managing the emissions they produce, that is, household emissions are increasing at a faster rate than the overall rate of household formation,” senior manager collaborative development Michele Lloyd said in a statement.
Environmental-economic accounts 2019 shows New Zealand is one of a small number of developed nations to see household emissions increase over the 2008-2015 period for which comparable data is available.
Emissions from road transport have also been increasing due to the increasing number of tourists and their use of vehicles, Lloyd said, adding that International tourism emissions, which are primarily from road transport, increased 20 percent since 2007, and accounted for 7.8 percent of total road transport emissions within New Zealand in 2017.
Total emissions decreased just 0.9 percent over the 2007-2017 period. In that time, industry emissions decreased 2.9 percent, but that was mostly offset by rising household emissions, she said.
The decrease in industry emissions over 2007-2017 was greatest for the electricity, gas, water, and waste service industry. This was partly due to increased use of renewable energy sources, particularly geothermal and wind, while its economic activity continued to grow over the period, she added.
In 2017, the largest contributors to total industry emissions were grain farming, dairy cattle farming, electricity and gas supply and rail, water, air, and other transport, according to the Stats NZ. Enditem
