Greenhouse gas emissions (industry and household): Year ended 2021 – Media release
31 May 2023
Greenhouse gas emissions statistics include the emissions by gas type for both industries and households, the emissions intensity (emissions in relation to GDP/economic output) for industries, and tourism-related emissions.
Key facts
Year ended December 2021
- Gross greenhouse gas emissions from New Zealand’s industries and households were 77,638 kilotonnes (carbon dioxide equivalent). This is a fall of 1.1 percent (876 kilotonnes) from 2020’s figure, and 6.2 percent lower (5,096 kilotonnes) than the 2019 pre-COVID-19 level.
- The fall was driven by a 1.8 percent decrease (1,236 kilotonnes) in industry-related emissions but was partly offset by a 4.4 percent increase (360 kilotonnes) in household emissions mostly due to an increase in household transport emissions.
- The largest changes to industry emissions were:
- agriculture, forestry, and fishing, down 668 kilotonnes (1.6 percent), driven by sheep, beef cattle, and grain farming
- transport, postal, and warehousing, down 333 kilotonnes (7.0 percent), driven by air and space transport
- manufacturing, down 202 kilotonnes (2.0 percent), driven by petroleum, chemical, polymer, and rubber product manufacturing.
- Emissions from industry were 88.9 percent of the total, with 11.1 percent coming from households.
- Service industries, as a broad industry group, contributed the least greenhouse gas emissions (9.2 percent).
- Primary industries contributed the most greenhouse gas emissions (53.5 percent).
- Emissions attributable to tourism in 2021 were virtually unchanged from 2020 and accounted for 4.6 percent of total emissions.
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