New Zealand greenhouse gas emissions source and sink summary data by sector and gas for 1990-2015. Data are sourced from the 1990-2015 New Zealand Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) absorb heat from Earth’s surface, warming the atmosphere and changing our climate. New Zealand’s share of GHG emissions is very small, but our gross emissions per person are high. Emissions mainly come from combustion of fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide (CO2), and agriculture which emits methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere much longer than other major GHGs. Because of this, today’s global CO2 emissions will continue to influence atmospheric CO2 concentrations for a very long time. Methane and N2O trap heat better than CO2 but leave the atmosphere faster.
More information on this dataset and how it relates to our environmental reporting indicators and topics can be found in the attached data quality pdf.
