New Zealand’s Energy System
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), by the year 2060, the Global emission can be pushed down to net zero so that the climate goals of Paris Agreement can be achieved. Global climate change is a serious issue and in order to reduce the global temperatures from rising further, there is an urgent to curb the amount of greenhouse gas emission and the rise of cardo dioxide in the atmosphere. The Paris agreement has set a limit to the global temperature rise and it is well below 2 degrees and a target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The agreement follows the science of carbon budgeting that brings forth the zero-emission within the second half of this century (Unfccc.int., 2018). IEA in its new report has said that the technologies can play a decisive role in achieving the global climate goals and in turn, this whole endeavour will enhance the economic development of the economy and satisfy its energy security. It has been seen for the first time that the technological models have expanded the time limit to 2060 and has set forth the pathway of net-zero emissions in all the energy sector (carbonbrief.org, 2018). Energy policy can be described as a process which is undertaken by a government to address the development of energy which includes the production of energy and the subsequent distribution and consumption. The energy consists of several attributes including the public policies, taxation, energy conservation, international treaties, legislation (Iea.org., 2018). This study is based on the presenting a policy briefing paper on the topic “The goal of zero net emissions can be achieved”.
- Energy production- Since the year 2005, there has been an increase of 27.9 percent of energy production. Till the year 2015, 16.4 Mtoe or energy have been produced in New Zealand and it contains of solar energy (0.3%), wind energy (1.2%), waste and biofuels (7%), coal (11%), hydro (13%), oil (13%), natural gas (24%), geothermal (29%) (Bec.org.nz, 2018).
- Consumption by sector till 2014- residential (10%), agriculture and public services (14%), transport (33%), industry (43%).
- Green House Gas emissions- since the year 1990, there has been an increase in the 53.6 percent of greenhouse gas emission and almost 57 MtCO2–equivalent is emitted (Bec.org.nz, 2018).
- Amount of Carbo dioxide emitted from the fuel combustion- Since the year 1990, there has been an increase of 44 percent in the carbon dioxide emission. About 31 MtCO2 has been emitted and it consists of 18 percent of coal, 24 percent of natural gas, and 57 percent of oil.
- Emission of CO2 by different sector- residential sector (2%), energy industries (5%), commercial (8%), power generation (18%), industry (22%), transport (45%) (Bec.org.nz, 2018).
New Zealand has the objective of reducing the greenhouse emission by fifty percent and it will be below the level of 1990 within the year 2050. This goal has been in place since the year 2002, however, the emissions continued to rise till the year 2000s. In the year 2008, an emission trading scheme just came forth and it failed to control the increase in the emissions. During this time, cars were imported and this created a bump in the greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent. The agricultural sector is also responsible for the overall emission of the greenhouse gas emission because it contributes to around 50 percent of the emissions. The emissions are seen on the rise due to the usage of the nitrous oxides emitted by the synthetic and the effluent fertilisers. The plan of New Zealand to comply with the global obligation is due has been on the lines of carbon trading (The Conversation, 2018).
The agriculture sector consists of the livestock that produces the methane due to the digestion process of enteric fermentation. Further a small of the animal urine also gets oxidised into N2O when it interacts with the microbes in the soil. Energy sector utilizes the fossil fuels which generates carbon dioxide. Also, heat is generated from the manufacturing plants by burning the natural gas and coal and in turn, this also emits the carbon dioxide. The industrial processes also include the chemical reduction of the iron by using coal and this emits carbon dioxide. The process of refrigeration and air conditioning also utilizes the usage of Hydrofluro carbons (HFCs) (Doole, Marsh & Ramilan, 2013). The wastes that are getting decayed in the unmanaged landfills also produces methane. It has been found through a report of OECD that New Zealand is a small country and it contributes only about 0.2 percent to the global greenhouse gas emission. Although, the emission per person is much high compared to the emission of other countries. Among the developed nations, the emission per capita of New Zealand is found to be fifth highest (figure 1). Also, over the past 25 years, the emission of greenhouse gases has increased at a faster rate in comparison to the other developed countries (figure 2). It already discussed that around 50 percent of the emissions in New Zealand comes from the agricultural sector and this value is higher than the other developed countries. Cattle and sheep are held responsible for the Newland’s emissions and over a third of the methane emissions is contributed by the livestock (figure 3) (OECD, 2018).
The Present Status
Figure 2: change in the percentage of the greenhouse emission among the OECD countries from 1990 to 2015 [source: OECD, 2018]
Figure 3: Agricultural emissions as a percentage of emission across the OECD countries for the year 2014 [source: OECD, 2018]
The Paris climate agreement has led to the formulation of the new consolidate targets for New Zealand. The countries that will be not on track to meet the target will be in a much worse condition. However, it has now become clear that only the zero-emission have the potential to reduce the global rise in temperature in the long run. After the Paris agreement the New Zealand’s government came forward and asked the productivity commission to examine the challenges and the opportunities that will arise after the country undertakes the transition to a low carbon emitting economy (Mfe.govt.nz., 2018).
New Zealand can undertake the step of stabilising the economy with the higher prices on the emissions. Although, the pricing will be much higher in comparison to the other developed countries will actively help New Zealand to reduce and limit the production of the greenhouse gases under the 2 degrees Celsius and this also is in accordance with the Paris agreements. The target will be the production of carbon well below the level of 25 Mt below within the year 2050. The domestic prices of emissions can be kept above the levels mentioned in the Paris agreement till the year 2035. This, however, will be reduced after 2035 and thus will be inconsistent with the global carbon prices. The most notable part is the afforestation can be tackled by with the uptake of the low emission electricity system and this in turn also facilitate the uptake of the electric vehicles (Productivity.govt.nz., 2018a). Disruptive pathways of decarbonisation can be taken into account that will actively emphasis on the technological change and will bring changes in the issues that are causing disruption in the present economic structures of New Zealand. With the rise of new technologies, new products can be created in the new markets and this, in turn, will destroy the demand and reliance on the tradition industries and at the same time accelerate the accumulation of the capital assets. Electric vehicles can be spread effectively at the low costs which will support the consumer policies and him supportive policies. The pathway of disruptive decarbonisation will be helpful in achieving both the lowest cumulative emission and the lowest emission prices. The technological developments along with the adoption of proper emission-curbing policies can help New Zealand achieve half of the target of zero-emission within the 2020-2030 (Productivity.govt.nz., 2018b).
The move towards the compete for zero-emission within the year 2050 will take into account the stabilising decarbonisation pathway that targets the emission price of 250 dollars per tonne of carbon dioxide by the year 2050. The Stabilising decarbonisation emphasises the rapid technological changes that will stabilise the industrial structures that are already existing. The stabilising decarbonisation will uptake the new mitigations like the nitrogen inhibitors and the methane vaccines. Some of the agricultural lands can be converted to the dairy farming at a modest rate. Additionally, in the transport sector, with the minimal usage of the regulatory frameworks, the more of the technological frameworks for the effective usage of the biofuels can prolong the life of the existing transport sector. The benefit is that the slow uptake of the electric vehicles can be compensated (Productivity.govt.nz., 2018b).
Towards the Zero-emission New Zealand’s Attempt
There are further scopes of reducing the emissions to an extra level which are as follows:
- In order to reduce the emissions arising from the transport sector is to slowly uptake the electrical vehicles.
- Reducing the intensities of the industrial emissions.
- Increasing the forest area or plating more trees and this will increase the factor of forest sequestration (Walmsley et al., 2014).
- To bring a structural change in the agricultural sector, like moving from a highly polluting intensive forestry or farming to much less emission-intensive farming techniques like the horticulture and crops.
- Bringing changes in the agricultural sector by introducing the alternative usage of the pastoral agricultural systems, methane inhibitor, methane vaccine.
- Transitioning from the permanent forestry and plantation forestry (Walmsley et al., 2014).
New Zealand has the potential of producing a higher proportion of the renewable energy generation and this can largely reduce or lower the greenhouse gases. The electrification of the transport sector and the process of heat will play a major role in the path to low carbon economy.
- The low emission electricity will act as a buffer and help in the reduction of the process heat emissions and the transport emissions. The path to lowering emission from the electricity generation sector will involve the replacing and decommissioning of existing thermal plants. The thermal plants are the major contributors to greenhouse emissions and thus generating electricity from the renewable sources will reduce the pressure on the thermal plants and it will be able to meet the supply demands. Light vehicles can be electrified and the process heat will both contribute towards a low carbon economy. It has been seen that the reducing the emissions from the electrification process can actively increase the electricity costs and this will devalue the ultimate motive of reducing the level of emission. Thus, the costs of the electricity must be kept low so that the benefits arising from the effective usage of electricity can be accrued by the other sectors (Walmsley et al., 2015).
- The biggest challenge of the New Zealand power sector is to provide the electricity at the low prices and at the same time providing the same adequately. Resource adequacy takes into account the ability of the power sector to meet the demands of the consumers over a period of time. While at the same time meeting the demands that are arising from the system itself. Thus, this issue can be solved by using the thermal power plants for a certain period of time and for the rest of the day other renewable resources can be used like the wind energy and the gas plants that can be placed near the thermal power plants so that they can provide an interrupted supply of power. Solar energy can also be brought into the scenario accompanying with the storages like batteries. Solar power can act to add to the shortage of power that the thermal power plants are unable to fulfil (Walmsley et al., 2015).
- The electricity sector can be regulated with the help of overseer commission that will work on the maximum revenues/prices which will be allowed from the beginning of the regulatory period; the commission can also set a limit above which the yearly rates cannot be increased; The commission with the stakeholders can fix a minimum standard which is to be obliged by each and every electricity generation and distribution company (Bullock, 2012).
The transport is already experiencing change world over and this is marked by a significant change in the technological advancement in terms of engine design, emission standards, and safety features. Fuels are one of the major contributors to the global temperature rise and thus the fuel need to devised that will have help in the low emission of the carbon and other greenhouse gases. New Zealand can import vehicles that are currently based on the international emission standards. Also, the new sorts of digital technologies can be adapted that will promote the vehicle sharing and ride sharing techniques. Bringing forth the pricing of the transport emissions can lead to the high level of impact on the transport emissions due to the static demand on the change in the fuel prices and demand for fuel.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that The Paris agreement has set a limit to the global temperature rise and it is well below 2 degrees and a target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The agreement follows the science of carbon budgeting that brings forth the zero-emission within the second half of this century. New Zealand’s current system holds that Among the developed nations, the emission per capita of New Zealand is found to be fifth highest. Also, over the past 25 years, the emission of greenhouse gases has increased at a faster rate in comparison to the other developed countries. It already discussed that around 50 percent of the emissions in New Zealand comes from the agricultural sector and this value is higher than the other developed countries. Cattle and sheep are held responsible for the Newland’s emissions and over a third of the methane emissions is contributed by the livestock.
References
Bec.org.nz. (2018). 2017 ENERGY BRIEFING. Retrieved from https://www.bec.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/137556/2017-Energy-Briefingsingle-pages.pdf
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Doole, G. J., Marsh, D., & Ramilan, T. (2013). Evaluation of agri-environmental policies for reducing nitrate pollution from New Zealand dairy farms accounting for firm heterogeneity. Land Use Policy, 30(1), 57-66.
https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=AIR_GHG#
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Walmsley, M. R., Walmsley, T. G., Atkins, M. J., Kamp, P. J., Neale, J. R., & Chand, A. (2015). Carbon Emissions Pinch Analysis for emissions reductions in the New Zealand transport sector through to 2050. Energy, 92, 569-576.
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