Emissions Reduction Plan Falls Short On Climate Action From Buildings

The government’s vital second Emissions Reduction Plan offers a step up from its first draft, but fails to include easy wins and opportunities for slashing building emissions, the Green Building Council says.

The draft plan included only a line on buildings and construction, however the final plan now includes a chapter and two minor mentions for the sector:

• Expanding voluntary energy performance ratings for non-residential buildings.

• Making it easier for people to retrofit their buildings to improve energy efficiency.

“Coming from a draft plan that effectively ignored buildings and construction, it is welcome to see acknowledgment of the role our sector can play. However, the vague statements have no firm commitments and don’t deliver significant change. The Government has failed to take up some basic ready-made, affordable policy options that could deliver significantly toward hitting our emissions reduction targets,” says NZGBC chief executive Andrew Eagles.

A 2024 report by the NZGBC found that making energy use transparent, improving the minimum building standards, and phasing out fossil fuels in buildings would, if introduced from 2025, reduce cumulative emissions by 6,100kt by 2030. That would deliver almost a third of the required savings the Climate Change Commission have set out are needed to meet our Paris Agreement obligations.

“Additionally, these policies would reduce energy bills for Kiwi families and businesses, create comfortable, healthier homes, reduce peak load on the electricity grid and reduce the need for expensive generation, and ultimately reduce the carbon offset burden which Treasury estimates could be as high as $23bn if we don’t meet our emission reduction commitments.”

While the government says it’s on target for the second emissions budget, it appears to have ignored the Climate Change Commission’s revised target, and we’re likely to face a costly bill to buy carbon credits offshore with the second ERP exceeding our Nationally Determined Contributed by a significant amount.

“We're not on target to meet the emissions reductions we need. We need more urgency from government to both reduce emissions more quickly and lock in lower emissions for the coming decades. This is not a future focussed plan and risks locking in high emissions for future decades.”

Very few of the ERP’s projected cuts are from targeted policies. There remain opportunities in building and construction to reduce emissions that not only cost the government nothing, but save building owners through lower operating costs. These have been presented to government through submissions on the ERP, they have significant support from industry and include;

• Replacing fossil fuels with electricity for space and water heating - reducing emissions while costing less, improving health, and helping solve our energy crisis
• Improving the building code by seeking measurement of operational and embodied emissions
• Introducing energy performance certificates for commercial buildings and homes to help buyers and tenants make informed decisions
• Waste management plans to reduce the amount of material transported and sent to landfill

“Collectively these steps can deliver tens of millions of tonnes of emissions savings, getting our climate action back on track to being credible, and align with what other OECD countries are taking up. We have an opportunity to not only tackle our emissions, but improve the health and lives of Kiwis.”

“While other sectors grapple for new technology and hope for future solutions, buildings and construction can do the work now. The NZ construction and property sectors stand ready to deliver, we just need the government to empower us. This Emissions Reduction Plan fails to do that.”

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