OECD Economics Department Working Papers

ISSN :
1815-1973 (en ligne)
DOI :
10.1787/18151973
Cacher / Voir l'abstract
Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.
 

Green Growth and Climate Change Policies in New Zealand You or your institution have access to this content

Auteur(s):
Alexandra Bibbee
Date de publication
29 sep 2011
Bibliographic information
N°:
893
Pages
36
DOI
10.1787/5kg51mc6k98r-en

Cacher / Voir l'abstract

New Zealand, as a resource-based economy anxious to protect and promote its clean-and-green image, appropriately sees green growth as a natural direction for future development. The country’s environment is of high quality, and depletion of its abundant natural resources is for the most part not a problem. Nevertheless, there are challenges. With little pricing of water resources, water scarcity is being felt increasingly acutely in some dairy-intensive regions prone to drought. Water-quality degradation is linked to leakage from farming by-products. Agricultural activity also gives rise to nearly half the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, though electricity consumption and private transport are growing sources of pressure. New Zealand’s GHG intensity of output is the second highest in the OECD (after Australia’s), not surprising for a resource-rich country. Its unique emissions profile, however, makes for costly mitigation: an exceptionally high proportion of electricity generation is already renewable-based (mainly hydro), and no technology to significantly reduce methane from ruminant animals yet exists. New Zealand is a pioneer in implementing an emissions trading scheme (NZ ETS) covering all sectors and gases. Green growth could best be supported by the greater use of market mechanisms among a range of instruments in natural resource management and by strengthening price signals in the NZ ETS. This Working Paper relates to the 2011 OECD Economic Review of New Zealand (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/NewZealand).
Mots-clés:
nutrient trading, water use, agricultural emissions, carbon price, water pollution, mining, resource management, waste management, emissions trading scheme, renewables, environmental policies, biodiversity, climate change, GHG emissions, Kyoto obligations, New Zealand
Classification JEL:
  • H23: Public Economics / Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue / Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
  • Q42: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Energy / Alternative Energy Sources
  • Q48: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Energy / Government Policy
  • Q52: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Pollution Control Adoption Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
  • Q53: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
  • Q54: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Climate; Natural Disasters; Global Warming
  • Q57: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services; Biodiversity Conservation; Bioeconomics; Industrial Ecology
  • Q58: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics / Environmental Economics / Government Policy