New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory 1990–2006: An Overview

• New Zealand’s national greenhouse gas inventory
• Total emissions and removals: 1990–2006
• Emissions by gas
• Emissions by sector
• Agriculture sector
• Energy sector
• Industrial processes sector and solvents and other product use sector
• Waste sector
• Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry sector

Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry sector

Changes in the amount of carbon in vegetation and soil as a result of human activity are covered in the Land Use, Land-use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sector. The sector also includes emissions of nitrous oxide and methane resulting from land-use activity and carbon dioxide from liming soils. These emissions are reported within six land-use categories as defined by the IPCC inventory guidelines. These categories are forest land, cropland, grassland, wetlands, settlements, and other land.

In New Zealand, the LULUCF sector acts as a net carbon sink. Net removals for 2006 are 22.7 Mt CO₂-e or 29 per cent of New Zealand’s total emissions. The LULUCF sector of the inventory is not the same as the forest sinks under the Kyoto Protocol. The inventory reports emissions and removals from all forests (planted and natural) over all years, while the Kyoto Protocol limits forest sinks to forests planted after 31 December 1989.

Transfers of land use from one category to another are associated with emissions or removals. Some categories of land staying in the same land use are currently assumed to be in steady-state whereby they are neither gaining nor losing carbon. An example would be grassland or natural forests. For other categories, such as growing plantation forests, the land use is not changing but forest growth removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it as biomass. Emissions can also arise from the burning and decay of biomass and changes in soil carbon.

The trends observed in the LULUCF sector reflect New Zealand’s changing land-use and forestry activity, particularly during the 1990s.

In 2006, removals of greenhouse gases associated with planted forestry represent the majority of removals in the sector. Figure 12 shows the trend for LULUCF from 1990 to 2006.

• Net removals from planted forestry totalled 23.7 Mt CO₂-e in 2006. This excludes emissions from biomass burning. Forestry removals have increased by 12 per cent (2.5 Mt CO₂-e) since a 1990 level of 21.3 Mt CO₂-e. Removals fluctuate with annual forest planting and harvesting.

• Emissions from other land-use changes were 1 per cent (0.3 Mt CO₂-e) of the LULUCF sector in 2006. This excludes emissions from limestone application and biomass burning.

• Emissions of carbon dioxide from liming soil produced 3 per cent (0.7 Mt CO₂-e) of emissions from the LULUCF sector in 2006. This is an increase of 81 per cent (0.3 Mt CO₂-e) since the 1990 level of 0.4 Mt CO₂-e.

• Emissions of nitrous oxide and methane from biomass burning are 0.2 per cent (0.054 Mt CO₂-e) of emissions from the LULUCF sector in 2006. Emissions increased 16 per cent (0.007 Mt CO₂-e) from the 1990 level of 0.047 Mt CO₂-e.

New Zealand is implementing a multi-year effort to substantially improve its estimates for the LULUCF sector. The Land-Use and Carbon Analysis System (LUCAS) will use satellite and photographic imagery to determine changes in land use from 1990 and over the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2008–2012). Estimates of emissions and removal factors are being updated from a comprehensive survey of a national network of permanent plots.

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