Gross greenhouse gas emissions

The Government has published the latest greenhouse gas inventory. Labour and Greens and their proxy groups go on about the need to reduce emissions, and if you listened to them you would think they shrunk under a Labour Government and skyrocketed under National.

So what does the official data show.

• 1999 – 73,049 kt
• 2008 – 80,205 kt – an increase of 7,156 kt or 9.8% over 1999
• 2015 – 80,155 kt – a decrease of 50 kt or -0.1% over 2008

So emissions increased 10% under Labour and have slightly decreased under National. Do you think Greenpeace (led by a former Green MP) or Forest and Bird (ditto) would ever highlight this?

Note this is just gross emissions, which is those produced by activities such as energy, manufacturing, transport and agriculture. Net emissions include the impact of tree planting and deforestation and swings about more wildly as in any particular year there can be a big change in planting or felling activity.