New Zealand faces up to rapid rise in carbon emissions

New Zealand's greenhouse gases rose by 24 per cent between 1990 to 2008, a rapid rate of growth that government says will make it difficult to set a short-term reduction target for 2020.

A report released earlier this week by the Ministry for Economic Development noted that "total energy emissions in 2008 were almost four per cent higher than in 2007, predominantly due to a large increase in emissions from electricity generation" .

Coal-based emissions were up 37 per cent from 2007, as coal-burning power stations were fired up to compensate for a drop of hydroelectricity generation due to last year's drought. Hydroelectric facilities usually produce about 75 per cent of the country's power, but lower than expected rainfall has led to a significant drop in generation.

The recent spike in emissions will come as something of an embarassment to New Zealand, which has positioned itself as one of the greenest economies in the world and last year signed up to a high-profile UN initiative to become "climate neutral".

The government is in the process of setting a 2020 emissions target prior to next month's UN climate change meeting in Bonn. Greenpeace and other green groups have called on the nation to cut emissions by 40 per cent on 1990 levels.

However, New Zealand climate change minister Nick Smith told parliament earlier this week that the government would have difficulty achieving a target anywhere near the figure.

"When European countries talk of a 20 per cent reduction, they are already halfway there," said Smith. "Whereas New Zealand would need to reverse [its] 24 per cent increase first, and then meet any target on top of that within 10 years."

A couple of bright spots in the government report lay in the four per cent drop in transport emissions from 2007 – which have been attributed to higher fuel prices and the economic downturn – and a five per cent drop in carbon output from industrial processes.