Net Zero for New Zealand - have we finally woken up? Steve Couper

Though the impact of global warming has been known for many years, New Zealand has been surprisingly slow to implement positive change addressing the threat. Despite a population of only five million and 82% of public electricity generation coming from renewables, emissions from the agricultural sector still make the country a significant carbon contributor globally.

In 2004, to raise money to fund research into mitigating agricultural emissions to help comply with the Kyoto Protocol, the government attempted to implement a new levy. Derisively termed in the media, the resultant backlash from the farming community highlighted the rural/urban divide and the difficulties faced in collectively working to reduce carbon emissions. A change in government and the problem was left unresolved, with the can kicked down the road for subsequent administrations to deal with.

But climate change waits for no one and we are ever closer to the point of no return. The reality is that while New Zealand only contributes about 0.17% to the world's total greenhouse gas emissions, on a per capita basis it is significant, in fact the 21st highest contributor in the world and fifth highest within the OECD. And given the country’s relative wealth and national mantra of ‘clean and green’ one might expect New Zealand to be leaders in this space.
But change is happening. Fast forward to 2020, and New Zealand has moved to provide improvements to social outcomes through a drive to reduce emissions. Central government ratified the Paris agreement in 2016, and in 2019 implemented the Zero-Carbon Act providing a framework for policies that will move the country to ‘net-zero’ by 2050.

With a largely renewable electricity grid, and agricultural emissions reduction commitments already made in line with the Paris Agreement, there has been a need to find gains elsewhere. So, leveraging knowledge from Mott MacDonald’s global network, and our UK colleagues in particular, who were dealing with similar challenges a decade ago, several public infrastructure providers across New Zealand have stepped up to lead the charge. These include several local authorities who have declared climate emergencies over the past 18 months.

Auckland Council, and its water utility Watercare Services, are driving this change and encouraging others in the public infrastructure sector to decarbonise their asset base. While many have been comfortable targeting the operational carbon emissions of their businesses, few were aware of the contribution from embodied (capital) carbon when their assets are created. New tools and techniques were needed for these organisations to effectively evaluate the embodied carbon in infrastructure and drive this down.

The opportunity for New Zealand’s public asset owners to lead the country’s efforts has been supported by many progressive infrastructure organisations in the UK only too willing to help their New Zealand counterparts and transfer the knowledge and skills needed for infrastructure decarbonisation. Mott MacDonald has been working with many similar organisations in the UK including Anglian Water Services, National Grid and Highways England to help identify carbon hot spots in infrastructure creation, and deliver carbon baselining and building models to evaluate emissions.

This wealth of knowledge and data, is now delivered through Moata Carbon Portal via our digital solutions platform. It has allowed Mott MacDonald to bring the learnings and behavioural changes across the design, construction and equipment supply chain necessary to provide the innovation around low carbon thinking that will accelerate New Zealand’s drive for a lower carbon society.

By using Moata Carbon Portal, that is built around PAS 2080 (the global standard for embodied carbon management), Watercare are currently leading the way in Australasia with a reduction target of 40% embodied carbon across their ten-year capital delivery programme. Now available across the public sector, Moata Carbon Portal can help facilitate a national approach that allows for information sharing and unlocks the global knowledge base required to deliver our low carbon future.

Our Moata Carbon Portal rapidly models the capital and operational carbon of new assets, highlighting carbon hotspots during the optioneering project phase.