The oil and gas ban that increased coal imports
The Greens are wailing over the new policy to allow oil and gas exploration in NZ. This is short sighted s gas has far fewer GG emissions than coal. Let’s look at what our coal imports have been for the last few Governments:
- 2006-08: 2.56 MT
- 2009 – 11: 1.12 MT
- 2012 – 14: 1.12 M
- 2015 – 17: 1.35 MT
- 2018 – 20: 2.76 MT
- 2021 – 23: 2.64 MT
So the last National Government only had to import 3.6 MT of coal while the last three terms of Labour Governments imported 8.0 MT of coal.