1 Introduction
The Kyoto Protocol commits Parties that ratified the Protocol to individual, legally-binding targets to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Parties in Annex I of the Protocol must put in place domestic policies and measures to address emissions or take responsibility for emissions in excess of their target. Emissions may also be offset by increasing the amount of greenhouse gases removed by carbon "sinks", e.g. forests planted since 1990. New Zealand's target in the first commitment period of the Protocol (2008-2012) is 100% of New Zealand's emissions in 1990.
This report projects New Zealand's emissions and removals of greenhouse gases during the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. The projection follows New Zealand's annual inventory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and considers emissions and removals of the gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). Global warming potentials are used to convert each of the gases to a carbon-dioxide equivalent (CO2e). The global warming potential values used in this report are from the IPCC Second Assessment Report (IPCC, 1995).
The report is a compilation of sectoral projections from across Government. Agricultural projections are provided by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), energy and industrial processes projections are from the Ministry of Economic Development (MED) and waste projections are from the Ministry for the Environment (MfE). The MfE combines the sectoral projections to create the projected balance of units over the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
