Full hydro lakes drove down NZ's greenhouse gas emissions in 2023

Strong hydro generation in 2023 again helped drive a fall in gross emissions. (Image: Sharepix)

Wed, 16 Apr 2025

New Zealand’s gross emissions fell by 2% between 2022 and 2023, marking the fourth consecutive year-on-year decrease. As in 2022, strong hydro generation helped bring down emissions, along with lower livestock numbers, the end of domestic oil refining, fewer discarded heat pumps and less forest harvesting.Gross emissions in 2023 were 76.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2-e).The Ministry for the Environment’s (MfE) latest annual greenhouse gas inventory was released on April 15. It includes data up to 2023, th...

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