Prime Minister

Address at

OPENING
OF THE BURWOOD LANDFILL GAS UTILISATION PROJECT

at

QEII Park
Christchurch

2.50 pm
Friday 22 June 2007

Many thanks for the invitation to be here to open the Burwood Landfill Gas Utilisation Project.

This project to use methane gas from the landfill to help heat and power the Queen Elizabeth II Park complex is truly innovative. It makes economic as well as environmental sense and the savings are impressive.

In one project, the Council is capturing methane, using less power from fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving money, and generating cash from the sale of carbon credits. That's not just win : win – it's at least five wins!

Methane is one of the more damaging greenhouse gases. Indeed it is rated as 21 times more damaging than carbon dioxide. It oozes out of our landfills – and that's a problem both central and local government have been working on.

To date, government has supported five projects to capture and use methane emissions from landfills, under our Programme to Reduce Emissions. This project could not have gone ahead without that support.

I've also seen a sister project in Palmerston North at the old Awapuni Landfill.

Almost three years ago our government introduced new Environmental Standards which cover landfills. Those which produce over one million tonnes of refuse must collect their greenhouse gas emissions. Seventeen of the country's sixty landfills are covered by this new requirement. As they take seventy per cent of New Zealand's waste, that's a big step forward.

In this project at Burwood, the equivalent of over 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be saved from emission to the atmosphere over the next five years. Piping it to QEII Park means replacing around 1.5 million litres of LPG and saving $900,000.

To put it another way, this project reduces carbon emissions equivalent to those produced from 11,000 cars each year, and can generate enough electricity to power 200 average households.

Innovative projects like these are important to New Zealand as we want to make a contribution to solving the world's environmental problems. We can become a truly sustainable nation with smart strategies and technologies. Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol gave us every incentive to move down this path. Indeed this project was made viable through the allocation of 200,000 Kyoto carbon credits.

In turn, Christchurch City has been able to onsell the credits to British Gas. That helps British Gas meet its commitments under the European Trading Scheme. Christchurch City Council has earned $3 million from the sale, covering a substantial part of the $4.2 million capital cost of this project.

The Government has now directly supported more than 40 Projects to Reduce Emissions. Investors are private or publicly-listed companies, state-owned enterprises, and local authorities. The environmental benefit of these projects in terms of the reduction of carbon dioxide equivalent is comparable to taking 3.2 million cars off the road for one year.

I expect arrangements like these will become increasingly common, as carbon markets and systems for trading develop worldwide.

We all have a part to play in the sustainability challenge – central and local government, communities, businesses, and households. It’s great to see how seriously these issues are being taken in Canterbury.

For example, Environment Canterbury is taking steps to make the region's public transport system carbon neutral.

Christchurch City Council is looking to make its operations carbon neutral. It’s a member of the government sponsored Communities for Climate Protection programme, to which 27 of New Zealand's councils have signed up, representing 75 per cent of our population.

Christchurch City has achieved a thirty per cent reduction in energy use by investing in energy efficiency during the last ten years, and I congratulate the Council on that too.

Our Labour-led Government is also taking steps towards carbon neutrality. Six core public service departments are on track to be carbon neutral from 2012. All other agencies must have plans in place by 2012 to achieve carbon neutrality in future.

We're also working on an emissions trading programme, to encourage emitters to find the least cost way of taking responsibility for and reducing their emissions. This should lead to even more emissions reductions projects which make economic and environmental sense, like this one.

Alongside these steps are the development of the New Zealand Energy Strategy to further increase renewable generation, the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy, the revision of the Building Code, and sustainable transport and land management initiatives.

This Burwood Project is a small one – but it’s important in showing how out of something environmentally damaging we can turn the tables and get a positive result.

Everybody involved in the project should feel proud of what's been achieved. It is my pleasure now to declare the project open and light the flare.

ENDS

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