New Zealand meets its 2020 emissions reduction target
Aotearoa New Zealand has met its 2020 target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
New Zealand met the target — to reduce emissions to 5 per cent below 1990 levels over the period 2013–2020 — through a combination of carbon removals from forestry and international offsets.
New Zealand used 6.5 million of 28 million surplus Kyoto-era emissions units to meet the 2020 target. These were units with environmental integrity left over after New Zealand met its previous (2008–2012) international emissions reduction target.
Graph showing how New Zealand met its 2020 emissions reduction target.
The remaining 21.5 million units held in the Crown Holding Account – each representing a tonne of greenhouse gas emissions – have now been cancelled.
The cancellation confirms New Zealand’s position not to use Kyoto-era units to meet its Paris Agreement target of reducing net emissions to 50 per cent below gross 2005 level by 2030.
New and additional domestic climate action will be New Zealand’s first priority to meet the Paris target. However, New Zealand will supplement domestic climate action with offshore mitigation with environmental integrity.
Read New Zealand’s True-Up report, which finalises the 2020 target — see Report upon expiration of the additional period for fulfilling commitments by Aotearoa New Zealand
For full details on how the 2020 target was met see Latest update on New Zealand's 2020 net position
For more on the current international target under the Paris Agreement see Nationally Determined Contribution