Scorecard summary:
Fulfilment of Rio Conference Commitment- Red
Current Government Position on Climate Change- Red
Per Capita CO2 Emissions- Green (7.58 metric tons per person in 1992)
National CO2 Emissions - Green (26 million metric tons in 1992)

OVERALL ASSESSMENT:
Small and idiosyncratic player within the international Climate Change treaty negotiations, supports net approach using forest sinks, may introduce a small carbon levy.

NATIONAL CLIMATE PROTECTION GOAL:
The current Government objective is to reduce CO2 net emissions to 1990 levels by 2000 and to keep them at that level beyond then. An objective of reducing CO2 net emissions to 20 percent below their 1990 levels by 2000 was adopted in 1990 but has been dropped.

SPECIFIC FEATURES:
New Zealand has a small economy and only some 3.5 million inhabitants. The significance of agriculture in the economy is reflected in the fact that methane emissions constitute 57 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions, with CO2 33 percent and nitrous oxide less than 10 percent. CO2 emissions however are projected to grow between 14-17 percent from 1990-2000. The government's strategy to reduce CO2 emissions is sink enhancement and to rely on afforestation as an important though transitional way of mitigating climate change.

NEGATIVE FEATURES:
Unlike the trend in most OECD countries, energy intensity (supply/GDP) grew over the two decades up to 1993 but has recently fallen off. Gasoline prices, in particular, are low compared with most OECD countries. The reliance on carbon sequestration, the sink approach, has not been agreed at international level. There is considerable uncertainty as to how sequestration of carbon in planted forests will develop, depending on planting and cutting rates and the fact that they represent only a small sector in terms of land use but one which is changing rapidly. Furthermore, there are great uncertainties associated with levels of carbon storage in indigenous forest together with the main mechanisms in carbon uptake and it is not clear whether the forest is a net sink or source.

POSITIVE FEATURES:
The Government has indicated that it will introduce a low level carbon charge by the end of 1997 if the CO2 programme is not seen as being on track by 1997. Electric power is very largely renewable in origin: 70-75 percent hydro and 7 percent geothermal.

Sources: Energy Policies of IEA Countries 1996 Review. Independent NGO Evaluations of National Plans for Climate Change Mitigation -Europe second review, Climate Action Network, Brussels, August 1994.