Dunedin's emissions

Ōtepoti Dunedin's Zero Carbon targets

The Dunedin City Council declared a climate emergency in 2019, setting a goal for Ōtepoti Dunedin to become a Zero Carbon city by the year 2030.

There are two overarching targets Dunedin needs to achieve to become a Zero Carbon city:

Net zero carbon by 2030 (excluding biogenic methane)
Reducing biogenic emissions

The Zero Carbon Plan maps out the changes that Dunedin needs to become a Zero Carbon city, and what the DCC is doing next to help make that happen.

Net zero carbon by 2030 (excluding biogenic methane)

Dunedin can achieve net zero carbon (excluding biogenic methane) through reducing its total emissions by 40% and increasing its carbon sequestration by 64% upon 2018/19 levels. This would require significant reductions in emissions from transport, stationary energy, agriculture, and industrial processes and product use.

Net zero carbon means that any greenhouse gases (excluding biogenic methane) we emit into the atmosphere in Dunedin are in balance with the amount of carbon absorbed out of the atmosphere by trees, also known as sequestration.

Graph data

	FINAL ZERO CARBON PLAN MODELLING
		Actuals		Modelled
	Sector / source	2018-19	2021-22	2024-25	2027-28	2030-31
Net Emissions (exlcuding biogenic methane)	Stationary Energy	192,833	176,329	155,090	84,570	75,816
Note to Web team: ignore land, air and marine transport please	Land transport	383,479	332,184	321,495	265,759	220,133
	Air Transport	30,400	18,717	19,608	20,015	15,091
	Marine Transport	194,496	160,389	160,916	143,773	116,664
	Transport	608,375	511,290	502,019	429,547	351,888
	Industrial Processes and Product Use (IPPU)	37,561	37,027	35,308	33,805	31,927
	Agriculture	150,176	143,095	142,125	138,099	134,074
	Total sequestration required	-361,337	-493,170	-494,235	-494,235	-593,704
	Net Emissions excl biogenic methane	627,607	374,572	340,306	191,787	-
	Gross Emissions excl biogenic methane	988,944	867,741	834,541	686,022	593,704

Table data

	2030
IPPU	-15%	(-1% between 18/19 and 21/22)
Sequestration	64%	(+36% between 18/19 and 21/22)
Agriculture N2O	-11%	(-3% between 18/19 and 21/22)
Transport	-42%	(-16% between 18/19 and 21/22)
Stationary energy	-61%	(-12% between 18/19 and 21/22)

This would require significant reductions in emissions from transport, stationary energy, agriculture and industrial processes. Even with these reductions, Dunedin would still be producing excess emissions that would need to be balanced out by increased sequestration.

While there is a long way to go, achieving net zero emissions is possible if organisations, businesses and communities work together and collectively pull all the available levers as hard as possible.

Reducing biogenic methane emissions

The city’s biogenic methane reduction targets are the same as the central government targets:

10% reduction from 2017 levels by 2030
24-47% reduction from 2017 levels by 2050

Graph data

	FINAL ZERO CARBON PLAN MODELLING
		Actuals		Modelled
	Sector / source	2018-19	2021-22	2024-25	2027-28	2030-31
Biogenic methane	Waste and Wastewater	112,473	97,567	88,321	79,496	70,974
	Agriculture (Methane)	578,142	565,761	545,503	529,184	512,865
	Gross biogenic methane emissions	690,615	663,328	633,824	608,680	583,839
	Biogenic methane reduction target track	690,615	673,350	656,084	638,819	621,554

Table data

	2030
Agriculture CH4	-11%	(-3% between 18/19 and 21/22)
Waste & wastewater	-37%	(-13% between 18/19 and 21/22)

By reducing emissions from the agriculture and waste sectors, a 15% reduction in biogenic methane emissions is possible by the year 2030.

Dunedin's emissions have already reduced since 2018/19. Fewer emissions are being generated, and the city's forests have grown, absorbing more carbon.

However, to achieve the two targets above (net zero carbon and reduced biogenic methane), much more needs to be done, quickly.

Dunedin's emissions

For the year 2021/22, Dunedin’s gross emissions were 1,542,500 tCO2e.

After considering carbon dioxide sequestered by forestry, our city's net emissions were 1,049,330 tCO2e.

Total Gross Emissions (excluding Forestry): 1,542,500 tCO2e

Total Net Emissions (including Forestry): 1,049,330 tCO2e

Dunedin's emissions profile

Dunedin City Community Carbon Footprint 2022

Ōtepoti Dunedin's carbon footprint 2021/22

To explore how much Ōtepoti Dunedin needs to reduce emissions by to become a Zero Carbon city, a ‘baseline year’ has been used – the year against which progress is measured. For Ōtepoti Dunedin, the baseline year is 2018/19.

In the 2018/19 year, activities in the city generated 1,697,0002 tCO2e gross emissions, and forests absorbed 361,300 tCO2e. The DCC measured the city’s emissions again in 2021/22, and gross emissions had reduced by 9% despite the population having increased over the same period. In 2021/22, about half of Ōtepoti Dunedin’s emissions came from agriculture (46%), followed by transport (34%), stationary energy use (12%), waste (6%), and industrial processes and product use (IPPU) (2%).