Aotearoa and the Pacific
New Zealand is the 11th biggest producer of greenhouse emissions
Nearly half (49 percent) of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the agriculture sector (livestock digestion and waste) and 43 percent from the energy sector (electricity and transport).
The following is a summary of New Zealand’s emissions from the 1990-2005 inventory:
* Total greenhouse gas emissions in 2005 were 77.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (Mt CO2-e)
* In 2005 the agriculture sector contributed 48.5 percent of the total emissions. The energy sector contributed 43.4 percent. The balance of emissions was made up of industrial processes (5.6 percent), waste (2.4 percent) and solvents (0.1 percent)
* The largest single source of emissions in 2005 was methane from enteric fermentation of ruminant animals (31.0 percent of the total emissions). Road transport was the next biggest source with a share of 16.4 percent of total emissions (total transport is 18.4 percent)
* Emissions from the waste sector have decreased 0.6 Mt CO2-e (25.9 percent reduction)
* Low-rainfall years affect the level of hydro lakes, which in turn reduces available hydro electricity supply. More fossil fuel-based thermal generation is then needed to ensure security of supply. As a result greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation rise. This was the case in 2005
* The peak and trough pattern of emissions resulting from electricity production due to the availability of hydro electricity generation will remain a feature of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas profile for some time.
-source New Zealand government website
Climate change challenge for small islands in Pacific – Small islands, including those in the South Pacific, are already experiencing the effects of climate change, according to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
NZ glacier will melt -The ‘tongue’ of the iconic Franz Josef Glacier will melt away in the next 100 years, according to new results from a team of glaciologists from Canterbury and Victoria universities.The researchers used a computer model to test the effect of the predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the glacier.
NZ feels the heat of global warming – Water security, natural ecosystems, and coastal communities are the three sectors most vulnerable to climate change in New Zealand, according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report finalised in Brussels on April 6th.
Climate change is heating up as a political issue in Australia. Prime Minister John Howard has appointed a taskforce of climate sceptics and major polluters “to advise on the nature and design of a workable global emissions trading system in which Australia would be able to participate”.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released an authoritative report on climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. This leaflet highlights some of its key findings for New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific.
G8 Take Note: Tuvalu Climate Change’s Global Face – in the small Pacific island country of Tuvalu, Sialafaga Talua, a born and bred islander pondered her shaky future on the islands, as she has always done again and again. Salafaga Talua has a difficult decision on her hands, to either pack her bags and leave Tuvalu for safer territories or stay and watch her country slowly sink under the rising sea levels in the Pacific and hope for the best.
Hapū appeals airport plan to move children, marae – Ngāti Uenukukopako has appealed plans by Rotorua District Council and its airport company to force them to move their kohanga, kura and marae and stop them from building on ancestral land.
South Pacific island-nations endangered by rising sea levels – Nothing is as it used to be on the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea. Only from a distance does the archipelago appear like a South Pacific paradise, but the illusion quickly evaporates as soon as one steps foot onto land.
Fiji’s Mangroves, Coral Under Assault – Mapmakers often call the islands of the Pacific “Oceania.” A drive along the southern coast of Fiji’s biggest island, Viti Levu, proves why it’s the right name. Tin-roofed, cinder-block homes sit alongside traditional thatched houses, and just beyond the fruit trees and animal pens in the backyards lies the Pacific Ocean.
Climate Change and the Pacific Islands -The Pacific islands view climate change as a major disaster and have openly and continuously criticized the industrial nations for failure to take definitive steps towards abating pollution of the global atmosphere. There are three distinct impacts from this pollution; global warming, sea level rise and climate change. In fact, despite continuing improvement in measurements and predictive computer programmes, nobody knows exactly what the outcome of atmospheric pollution will be, but if the current range of peculiar weather and catastrophic deaths of a wide range of important ecosystems are any indication, the small islands of the world have good cause to be worried.
Global warming from increasing levels of greenhouse gasses is expected to have serious effects on the Pacific Ocean. Most marine organisms live within narrow temperature regimes, and even short-term extreme temperature increase can have a dramatic impact. In the past two decades, for example, short-term extreme high temperatures contributed to a decline of coral reefs throughout the tropics. Corals, stressed by high temperatures, may eject their symbiotic algae. Coral bleaching, as this is called, renders the corals less able to cope with additional physiological stress and many of the colonies die. In November 1998, 350 reef managers, biologists and government representatives attended the International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium in Townsville, Australia. The scientists revealed that the coral bleaching episodes of 1997-1998 were the most geographically widespread ever recorded and probably the most severe in recorded history (Wilkinson, 1998, Robbins 1999). In a 1999 International Coral Reef Conference, some scientists expressed the opinion that it was now too late to save the coral reefs of the planet even if greenhouse gas emissions could begin to drop immediately….This has significant impacts on organisms, such as fish, that depend on the living coral structures. In 1994, elevated sea temperatures killed over 90% of the living corals of American Samoa from the intertidal zone to a depth of 10 meters and fishing catches declined drastically in the wake of the coral death.
Weather Watch
May weather runs hot and cold – NIWA figures released on Friday morning show record highs and lows, extreme rain and early snowfall.
Indian summer may not curtail ski season – The month of May is on track to be the warmest in 20 years.The unseasonable weather has left mountain slopes bare and skifield operators seeking to calm the nerves of jittery skiers and snowboarders.
Business watch
Business Concerned At Head-Long Rush Into Emissions Trading – A wide range of business organisations representing the productive sectors in New Zealand are growing increasingly alarmed at the government’s apparent head-long rush into the introduction of emissions trading.
Spies exposed in local activist groups – The Christchurch Save Happy Valley (SHV) group, the Wellington Animal Rights Network (WARN) and Peace Action Wellington (PAW) have exposed corporate spies operating within their groups. In Christchurch, Ryan had been involved in the group for 7 months, while in Wellington Somali had been spying for around 2 years.
Are arguments about travel miles false science? Arguments against travelling overseas or buying foreign food because of the carbon footprint are “idiotic” and not the way to tackle climate change, Helen Clark has said.”If you want to talk about threats, the next threat to trade from our part of the world is going to be idiotic arguments about food miles and travel miles – don’t travel all the way to Australia, think of the carbon footprint, don’t buy their food, think of the carbon footprint,”Miss Clark told the Seven Network, Friday June 15, 2007.
Kyoto plan bodes ill for growth
8th November, 2001
The intention for New Zealand to ratify the Kyoto Protocol before our trading competitor countries is cause for serious misgivings, says the Employers & Manufacturers Association (Northern).
“Our standard of living in New Zealand is dependent to an unusual degree on the emission of greenhouse gases and relatively low cost energy,” said Alasdair Thompson, EMA’s chief executive.
