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Greenhouse Gas Emissions in New Zealand: A Preliminary Consumption-Based Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Carl Romanos

    (Stanford University)

  • Suzi Kerr

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research)

  • Campbell Will

    (University of Otago)

Abstract

New Zealand’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are usually calculated by taking total emissions as reported under the Kyoto Protocol or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and simply dividing by population. However this focuses on emissions associated with production within New Zealand. From the point of view of individuals, these are not the emissions they control, and hence can mitigate. Individuals can calculate their “carbon footprint” but tools to do this typically focus on a few categories of emissions (mostly electricity, direct fuel use and waste) and emissions footprints are not available for a wide range of households so cannot be used for comparative analysis. This paper explores how the carbon emissions related to the consumption categories of households in New Zealand vary with household characteristics. We use product consumption data from the 2007 Household Economic Survey. Consumption within each category is linked to a carbon intensity multiplier (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per dollar of consumption) which is derived from: the official 2007 input–output table of 106 industries produced by Statistics New Zealand; energy data on carbon dioxide per petajoule of fuel in each industry from the Energy Data File; and the Energy Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report both provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Previous literature has used similar methods to calculate the incidence of a carbon tax (e.g. Creedy and Sleeman [2006]). This paper uses these methods in order to study which sectors of household expenditure offer the greatest opportunities for mitigation and how these opportunities vary with household characteristics such as income decile, region and household composition.

Suggested Citation

  • Carl Romanos & Suzi Kerr & Campbell Will, 2014. "Greenhouse Gas Emissions in New Zealand: A Preliminary Consumption-Based Analysis," Working Papers 14_05, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:mtu:wpaper:14_05
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kevin A. Hassett & Aparna Mathur & Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2009. "The Incidence of a U.S. Carbon Tax: A Lifetime and Regional Analysis," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 155-178.
    2. Common, M. S. & Salma, U., 1992. "Accounting for changes in Australian carbon dioxide emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 217-225, July.
    3. Kerkhof, Annemarie C. & Nonhebel, Sanderine & Moll, Henri C., 2009. "Relating the environmental impact of consumption to household expenditures: An input-output analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 1160-1170, February.
    4. Gough, Ian & Abdallah, Saamah & Johnson, Viki & Ryan-Collins, Josh & Smith, Cindy, 2011. "The distribution of total embodied greenhouse gas emissions by households in the UK, and some implications for social policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 36562, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Corbett Grainger & Charles Kolstad, 2010. "Who Pays a Price on Carbon?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 46(3), pages 359-376, July.
    6. M. S. Common & U. Salma, 1992. "Accounting for Australian Carbon Dioxide Emissions," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 68(1), pages 31-42, March.
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    9. Saamah Abdallah & Ian Gough & Victoria Johnson & Josh Ryan-Collins & Cindy Smith, 2011. "The distribution of total greenhouse gas emissions by households in the UK, and some implications for social policy," CASE Papers case152, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
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    Cited by:

    1. Corey Allan & Suzi Kerr & Campbell Will, 2015. "Are we turning a brighter shade of green? The relationship between household characteristics and greenhouse gas emissions from consumption in New Zealand," Working Papers 15_06, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Climate change; emissions; consumption; household emissions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming

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