Environmental-economic Accounts: Data To 2022

Environmental-economic accounts show how our environment contributes to our economy, the impacts of economic activity on our environment, and how we respond to environmental issues.

Stats NZ’s environmental-economic accounts show the interactions between the environment and the economy to provide a clearer understanding of environmental-economic pressures, dependencies, trade-offs, and impacts. It is done within the United Nations’ System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework, which specifies how environmental data can be integrated coherently with economic data from the System of National Accounts.

All accounts are expressed in monetary units and in current prices for the year to March.

Key facts

In the year to March 2022:

• Total environmental taxes were $7.1 billion, most of which were energy (57 percent) and transport (42 percent) taxes. From 2021-2022, environmental taxes increased 14 percent ($846 million).
• Marine economy contributed $4.2 billion to New Zealand’s gross domestic product (GDP). This was an increase of 2.2 percent compared with 2021. The contribution of the marine economy to total GDP decreased from 1.3 to 1.2 percent.
• The total asset value of renewable energy was $19.4 billion. Hydrogeneration made up 68 percent of total asset value, followed by geothermal (22 percent).
• Central and local government expenditure on environmental protection (on a final consumption basis) increased 10.5 percent ($234 million) to total $2.5 billion. Local government contributed 65 percent ($1.6 billion) to this total, and central government 35 percent ($860 million).

Environmental protection expenditure

Environmental protection expenditure includes expenditure by central and local government on activities that prevent, reduce, and eliminate pollution as well as other forms of environmental degradation.

General government final consumption expenditure on environmental protection (central and local government together) increased 10.5 percent ($234 million) in the year to March 2022. Total central government environmental protection expenditure increased 16.7 percent ($123 million), representing 1.3 percent of total central government final consumption expenditure. Total local government environmental protection expenditure increased 7.4 percent ($111 million), representing 20.5 percent of total local government final consumption expenditure.

Environmental taxes

Environmental taxes include the amount of energy, transport, pollution, and resource taxes paid to government for something that has a proven scientific negative impact on the environment.

In the year to March 2022, environmental taxes increased 13.5 percent ($846 million) to a total of $7.1 billion, making up 5.8 percent of total tax revenue. The key movements were:

• energy base, up 19 percent ($650 million)
• transport base, up 6.2 percent ($172 million)
• pollution base, up 80 percent ($27 million).

The increase in environmental taxes in the year to March 2022 was primarily from a $650 million increase (19 percent) from the energy tax base and was mainly due to the Emissions Trading Scheme, which led to increases in taxes on greenhouse gases. Auctioning of New Zealand units as part of the Emissions Trading Scheme was introduced in the first quarter of 2021. Taxes from the energy base comprised 57 percent of environmental tax take during the year to March 2022.

Increases in taxes from the transport base are from taxes associated with vehicle and road use (primarily road user charges and vehicle registration). Taxes from the transport base comprised 42 percent of environmental tax take in the year to March 2022.

Increases in taxes from the pollution base are from taxes associated with the waste disposal levy. Taxes from the pollution base comprised 0.9 percent of environmental tax take in the year to March 2022.

Environmental taxes paid by industry are increasing at a faster rate than environmental taxes paid by households. The amount of environmental taxes paid by households peaked in 2014. In 2014, households contributed 17 percent of total environmental taxes collected and the proportion decreased to 10 percent in the year to March 2022. Almost all environmental taxes paid by households are transport environment taxes. Environmental taxes paid by industries were 77 percent of total environmental taxes collected during the same period, and the remaining 13 percent were unallocated.

Marine economy

The marine economy account values the economic activities that take place in or use the marine environment to produce goods and services.

In the year ended March 2022, the marine economy directly contributed $4.2 billion (1.2 percent) to New Zealand’s GDP. This was an increase of 2.2 percent compared with 2021, but the overall contribution of the marine economy to total GDP decreased from 1.3 to 1.2 percent during the same period.

In 2022, 68 percent of the asset value of renewables came from hydrogeneration, 22 percent from geothermal, 7.6 percent from wind, 1.3 percent from wood, 0.7 percent from biogas, and 0.6 percent from solar. Solar had the smallest contribution to total renewable asset value in 2022, but had the largest annual increase in value, up 105 percent.

Revisions

This release contains revisions arising from new and more up-to-date input data. In the marine economy statistics, an error was found and corrected, resulting in revisions to mean earnings from 2007 to 2021.

See previous environmental-economic accounts information releases:

• Environmental-economic accounts
• Greenhouse gas emissions.

Definitions and metadata

Environmental-economic accounts: Data to 2022 – DataInfo+ presents the data sources and methods used for the compilation of each of the environmental-economic.

Environmental-economic accounts: Sources and methods (third edition) presents the data sources and methods for the entire suite of accounts produced by Stats NZ under the System of Environmental Economic Accounting framework.

Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 2006 (ANZSIC06) is used to classify industries so that they align with economic statistics, such as GDP and employment.

Technical enquiries

Jane Harkness
04 931 4312
[email protected]

ISSN 2624-0777

Next release

Environmental-economic accounts: Data to 2023 is scheduled for release in March 2025.