Environment at a Glance: New Zealand
Table of contents
The OECD Environment at a Glance Country Notes are designed to support transparent, evidence-based information. They provide concise and descriptive overview of progress across major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity conservation. They feature selected environmental indicators, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. See the Reader’s guide to the Environment at a Glance Country Notes for more information.
New Zealand is a small, open and dynamic economy. Its population enjoys high living standards and a high environmental quality of life, with access to pristine wilderness and good air quality. The country is relatively sparsely populated. Natural resources have been a pillar of economic growth, with agriculture, forestry, fishery and tourism accounting for a large share of gross domestic product (GDP) and exports. New Zealand is the world’s largest exporter of dairy products and sheep meat. The economy has also a sizable and expanding service sector, alongside some large-scale manufacturing industries, notably aluminium and metal production, and food processing, and high-tech manufacturing. The diverse, and often spectacular, landscapes underpin the growing film industry and tourism sector.
New Zealand is a remote island state in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising two main islands and many smaller islands. Its terrain is predominantly mountainous, with some large coastal plains. Due to its geographic isolation and natural history, which evolved in the absence of mammalian predators, New Zealand has a unique wealth of biodiversity, and one of the world’s highest rates of endemic flora and fauna species. The country is endowed with a wide variety of fossil fuels and renewable energy sources, including iron ore, coal, gold, timber, natural gas, hydropower, sand and limestone, as well as fisheries. Its gas reserves are sufficient to meet domestic consumption. The many rivers are swift and well suited to hydropower generation.
New Zealand managed to decouple economic growth from energy supply and production-based (i.e. produced within the territory) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions since the mid-2000s. Despite a declining trend since 2005, the per person production-based and demand-based (or footprint, i.e. including emissions incorporated in imported goods) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remain above the OECD averages. Demand-based emissions are lower than production-based ones, meaning that New Zealand is a net exporter of GHG emissions embodied in final demand (i.e. demand for goods and services by all residents).
New Zealand has an unusual emissions profile, with just over half of its emissions coming from agriculture. This is the highest share in the OECD, reflecting the importance of agriculture, including food and livestock production. Most of the agriculture-related emissions are biological emissions, mainly methane (CH4) from ruminant cattle (enteric fermentation) and nitrous oxides (N2O) from animal waste and fertilisers. The transport sector is the second source of emissions and is almost entirely dependent on oil as a fuel source. Industry is also a major contributor to GHG emissions and is heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Manufacturing industries and construction are the second largest source of emissions and contribute 7.1% of total emissions, excluding land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF). The LULUCF sector is a net sink and offsets about 28% of gross emissions (Environment, 2026).
New Zealand’s gross and net emissions peaked in 2006 and decreased by 11% during 2005-24, due to decreases in emissions across most sectors (excluding LULUCF). The emission sources that contributed the most to this decrease were electricity and heat production due to increased renewable electricity generation, less enteric fermentation from sheep and non-dairy cattle, due to declines in the sheep population, a decline of petroleum refining due to the gradual shut down of sole oil refinery, and less solid waste disposal thanks to improved landfill management. These decreases were partially offset by increases from enteric fermentation from more numerous dairy cattle, from higher road transportation, and from manure management.
New Zealand is well-endowed with fossil-fuel resources and is a net exporter of coal, but imports most of its oil. Net production and consumption of natural gas have decreased in recent years. New Zealand has a diversified energy mix, with significant production of both hydropower and geothermal. Although fossil fuels still provide just over half of total energy supply (TES), the share of renewables in TES has reached 48.5% in 2025 (among the highest in the OECD), and 88% of electricity output.
Unlike in most OECD countries, emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) have not decreased in the last two decades. Emissions of sulphur oxide (SOx) have been decreasing since 2022. Emission intensities, both per person and per unit of GDP, are well above the OECD average.
By contrast, population exposure to PM2.5 is low by international comparison, and is slightly above the World Health Organisation threshold of 5 µg/m3. Regional variations to exposure are also low.
The little available data show that New Zealand is water-rich. With gross abstractions representing 3% of total renewable freshwater resources, water stress is not an issue.
By international standards, freshwater in New Zealand is both clean and in good supply. However, some aspects of water quality and quantity are deteriorating in areas dominated by intensive land use (CBD).
Latest available data (2016) indicate that about 84% of households are connected to a wastewater treatment plant.
Data on municipal waste are incomplete and show only waste disposed of at levied disposal facilities (landfills). At about 642 kg in 2024, per person municipal waste generation is above the OECD average.
Although per person domestic material consumption (DMC) has been declining since 2000, it remains well above OECD average, and per person material footprint has increased since 2000. Material productivity has been increasing since 2000 but remains well below the OECD average. The importance of the agricultural sector shows in the material mix: unlike most OECD countries, biomass makes up the bulk of materials consumed.
New Zealand has a large forest area and an almost as large part of the land is used for agriculture and livestock. Due to its relative isolation from continental landmasses, New Zealand has a high level of endemic biodiversity, with an estimated 80 000 species of native animals, plants and fungi. Endemic species include all the frogs and reptiles, more than 90% of the insects, approximately 80% of vascular plants and a quarter of bird species. While little is known about many of New Zealand’s marine species, up to 80% of the country’s indigenous species are thought to occur in the marine environment, around 44% of which are thought to be endemic. Since the 1970s, decreases in population sizes of species have been largely caused by the significant impacts of introduced invasive alien species. Since native species evolved in the absence of any native land mammals, they are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of introduced predatory mammal species (CBD).
The country already achieved the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) target (under the Convention on Biological Diversity) of protecting 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas. However, the share of terrestrial areas designated under strict management objectives (International Union for the Conservation of Nature -IUCN - categories I and II) is very low.
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
The share of environmentally related tax revenues in GDP and in total revenues is above the OECD average. Like most countries, the energy tax base is the largest, followed by transport.
In total, 44.7% of GHG emissions in New Zealand were subject to a positive Net Effective Carbon Rate1 (ECR) in 2023. Explicit carbon prices in New Zealand consist of emissions trading system (ETS) permit prices, which cover 44.5% of GHG emissions in CO2 equivalent. Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, covered 22.9% of emissions in 2023. About 7% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net Effective Carbon Rates are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 15.4% of the country’s total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is on average positive in all sectors (OECD, 2024).
The share of environmentally related government research and development (R&D) budget in total budget has decreased but was relatively high in 2017. The share of renewables in public energy research, development and demonstration (RD&D) is very high by OECD standards.
New Zealand is a minor player in environmentally related inventions, with per person inventions and share of environmentally related inventions below the OECD average.
New Zealand’s development co-operation primarily focuses on small island developing states in the Pacific region. It seeks to support the social, environmental, economic, and stability and governance pillars of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Climate change and its impacts are a focus of its cooperation programme, as well as efforts to eliminate harmful fossil fuel and fisheries subsidies. Its commitment to climate shows in the share of bilateral official development assistance (ODA) targeting climate, which has steadily increased during the past decade, to reach 51.3% in 2023-24, a high share compared to other Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members. The share targeting biodiversity has also increased considerably in recent years, at 22.4% in 2023-24, a very high share by DAC standards (OECD, 2026).
References
CBD. (n.d.). Country profiles: New Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile?country=nz
Environment, M. o. (2026). National Inventory Document. Wellington: Ministry of the Environment. Retrieved from https://unfccc.int/documents/656533
Hockings, M., & al, e. (2006). Evaluating Effectiveness. A framework for assessing management effectiveness of protected areas. 2nd Edition. IUCN. Retrieved from https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/PAG-014.pdf
OECD. (2024). Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down. OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris. doi:10.1787/b44c74e6-en
OECD. (2026). Development Co-operation Profiles. OECD Publishing, Paris. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/new-zealand_31b7d07e-en.html
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← 1. Effective Carbon Rate (ECR) is the sum of fuel excise taxes, carbon taxes and tradeable permits that effectively put a price on carbon emissions. The Net ECR equals the ECR minus fossil fuel subsidies that decrease pre-tax fossil fuel prices.