Plastic packaging is being talked about more than any other time since it was first invented. With single-use plastic bags now banned, and our ability to outsource soft plastic recycling overseas becoming less viable, there are some fundamental shifts occurring for New Zealand. With more efforts to switch to reusable alternatives, and a rethink about plastic recycling, we need to focus much more on how we manage our waste.
Category: Environment
Chart of the month: one sunny day…
The Treasury hit headlines a month or two back when considering ‘sun and moon feelings’. While sun and moon feelings did not meet our criteria in when developing the Infometrics regional wellbeing framework, we thought it would be fun to shine the line sunshine hours to see what area came up trumps.
Chart of the month: who let the dogs out?
As we head into summer, many of us will be looking forward to spending time with friends, family, and of course ‘man’s best friend’, the pooch. This month we draw of data from the Department of Internal Affairs to look at where dogs are more concentrated in NZ. There were 560,511 registered dogs in NZ for the year ending 30 June 2018. Two-thirds (67%) of dogs are in the North Island (compared to 77% of the human population), with the remaining third (33%) in the South Island (vs 23% human).
A strong economy can also be environmentally sustainable
There was an increased push for greater environmental sustainability during the economy’s boom times last decade – until the Global Financial Crisis hit in 2008, that is. Now the New Zealand economy is back in a strong position and we expect to see an increasing amount of investment in environmentally sustainable buildings over the next few years.
Electrifying Change
Shifting our vehicle fleet to renewable electricity is an obvious and urgent action if the government is to achieve the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target it set itself last year in the lead up to the Paris climate conference. A recent report by Concept Consulting confirmed that electric vehicles (EVs) would be a sensible way to reduce our GHG emissions.
Cost of an Emissions Target
Infometrics has recently been involved in estimating the economic impacts on New Zealand of participating in an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the period 2021 to 2030. We looked only at the cost of emissions mitigation to New Zealand, not at the effects (benefits) of avoided climate change. Actions by New Zealand will not affect global warming, but New Zealand may nonetheless wish to set an ambitious emissions reduction target.
Daylight savings, global warming, and co-ordination
It appears we’ve all survived another daylight savings event. We’re all a little bit more tired, but we now get the advantage of having plenty of early evening sun. While many of us do appreciate this, I plan to discuss the economic argument for why we use daylight savings – and what this means for a broad range of other issues that involve government.
Solar power and energy scarcity
In recent years, falling prices for solar panels and risingcapacity for batteries has made solar an increasingly feasible source of energyfor many businesses and households. Here we discuss what has been going on,and what it may mean for broader energy prices and technological changes in thecoming decades.
Counting the cost of reducing emissions
If you think that the ongoing international negotiations about how to deal with climate change are a waste of time and won’t cost you anything, think again. While not all aspects of the issue are important, some have the potential to hit us hard in the pocket. Others have the potential to deliver economic gains. This article looks at the long term (to 2050) economic implications for New Zealand of three issues: how different greenhouse gases are converted into carbon dioxide equivalents, global participation in international agreements to reduce emissions, and the inclusion of agriculture in international agreements.
Have you noticed the emissions trading scheme?
With the turmoil in financial markets in recent months it iseasy to forget about longer term issues such as global warming and the cost ofdoing something about it. The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is supposedlymeant to reduce our consumption of carbon-intensive goods, such as energy,steel and concrete by raising the prices of those goods.