The Coal Era to End in New Zealand – Listen up America

August 9, 2015 – Kiwi country announced this week that their remaining two coal-fired power plants will be shut down as of 2018. Now one cannot compare the carbon emissions of New Zealand with those of the United States, China, or even Australia, New Zealand’s nearest neighbour, but decommissioning coal-generated energy sources even in two plants cannot hurt.

The utility, Genesis Energy, made the announcement on August 6th with December 2018 as the end date. Lower-cost renewable power generation from wind and geothermal investments along with energy conservation practices has made this decision possible.

For New Zealand the closure yields overall CO2 emission reductions moving the country closer to a 90% renewable energy generation goal. The two plants contributed 5% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

The two plants can also use natural gas and will continue to produce 450 Megawatts of power between the two.

New Zealand announced in July that its post-2020 climate change target is a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. Before 2020 the country had committed to a 5% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020. The 2030 target will be 11% below 1990 levels.

How would a 5% CO2 reduction translate if it were to happen in the United States? In 2013 the U.S. emitted 6.673 billion tons of CO2 from all industry sources. A decrease of 5% would equal 333.6 million tons. That’s equivalent to 65% of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions in the same year.

The New Zealand announcement in the context of overall global carbon reduction is a blip. The one trillion tons limit which I have described in a previous posting as too much will hardly be dented by two coal-fired power plants closing their doors.