Energy in the Emissions Trading Scheme

How is energy affected by the ETS?

The energy sector has obligations to report their activities and surrender New Zealand Units (NZUs) under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). They won’t receive an allocation of NZUs.

Obligations

Please see Energy’s obligations: Reporting emissions and surrendering NZUs for more information.

Allocations

The energy sector won’t receive an allocation of NZUs because they’ll be able to pass the costs of their ETS obligations on to their customers.

Energy and climate change

New Zealand is in a unique situation because 65 per cent of our electricity is generated from renewable sources, mainly from hydro power, making us well placed to move toward a low-emissions energy system.

For the 2007 calendar year, New Zealand’s stationary energy emissions came mainly from energy generated from non-renewable fuels, such as coal (14%) and gas (27%).

Between 1990 and 2007, greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation rose by approximately 91 per cent, and greenhouse gas emissions from energy use by manufacturing industries rose by approximately eight per cent.

If we continue with business as usual, it is projected that greenhouse gas emissions from stationary energy will increase by another seven per cent between 2005 and 2015.

Last updated: 16 December 2011