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Electricity companies rated on climate change
Electricity companies rated on climate change
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Electricity companies rated on climate change
Auckland – Monday July 16 2007 - Greenpeace today released an updated version of its Clean Energy Guide, which ranks New Zealand electricity companies on their current and future contribution to climate change.
The guide – the first of which was released in 2005 - helps New Zealanders make the switch to a cleaner electricity supplier.
"New Zealanders' concern about climate change has reached an all time high (1)," said Greenpeace Climate Campaigner Susannah Bailey. "People want to see the Government and industry taking action, but they also want to take action themselves.
"This guide gives them the opportunity to make an important change, and by doing so, they encourage energy companies to do the right thing and invest in renewable energy."
The guide ranks each company that feeds into the national grid according to its current supply and future commitment to clean, renewable energy. This edition also takes into account each company's energy efficiency programmes and whether they encourage households to generate their own renewable electricity.
Genesis Energy ranks worst this time round, replacing Mighty River Power (and their retail brand Mercury Energy) as the company whose policies and practices are the least mindful of climate change.
"Genesis gets the worst ranking because it owns the Huntly coal fired power station, the biggest point source of carbon dioxide in the country, and because most of its future plans involve fossil fuels, for example the Rodney gas project," said Ms Bailey.
"Mighty River and Mercury Energy have improved their ranking because they dropped their plans to recommission the Marsden B Power Station in Northland on coal. Part of the reason they did so was because of consumer pressure from the first Clean Energy Guide."
Meridian Energy remains the best ranked company, because all its electricity is currently generated from renewable sources and it has made a commitment to only use renewable sources in the future.
Susannah Bailey said it had been encouraging to notice an overall shift in electricity sector attitudes, as companies respond to public and political concerns (2).
"But some companies still have their head in the sand over climate change and all of them have room for improvement. For example Meridian is one of only two companies which don't encourage households to generate their own renewable energy by allowing them to feed excess electricity generation back into the network and be paid for that generation.
"It's inevitable that all electricity companies will have to make changes in the coming years, and putting those changes off isn't helping them or the country. Greenpeace's report, New Zealand Energy Revolution: How to prevent climate chaos (3) shows it's entirely possible for New Zealand to achieve a 100% renewable electricity supply by 2025. The sooner we start the shift the better."
Ms Bailey said while it was crucial for energy companies to step up to the plate over the problem, it was equally important for the government to put decisive, effective measures in place to reduce New Zealand's emissions.
"If we want to avoid the most catastrophic climate impacts, we need to reduce emissions 30% from 1990 levels by 2020 and 90% by 2050. We need all our political leaders to agree to set emission reduction targets, put a price on all greenhouse gas pollution and set policies to encourage renewable energy and energy efficiency."
Go to www.cleanenergyguide.org for more information.
*Attached is a low-res version of the front of the guide. If you wish to publish the graphic, go to http://cleanenergyguide.org.nz/high-res.jpg for a high-res version.
ENDS
(1) Colmar Brunton's Market Mood Monitor, May 30, 2007 found over three quarters of New Zealanders believe global warming is happening, and 92 per cent think it's caused by human activity. A 2007 Moxie Solution Seekers Survey found 83 per cent of New Zealanders are aware of the significant problems the world faces as a result of global warming. A ShapeNZ poll has found 89 per cent of New Zealanders think climate change is a problem, with 74 per cent saying it must to be managed now (35 per cent said urgently).
(2) For example, Contact is planning to invest only in renewable sources until 2008, and has developed a plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. They cited consumer pressure as one of the reasons for this change. But Contact still owns large gas power stations which also contribute to climate change and they have more gas plans for the future, hence their poor rating. Mercury Energy (the retail brand for Mighty River) has improved their ranking more than Contact, so that has shifted Contact into a worse ranking.
(3) http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/press/reports/nz-energy-revolution-report
Greenpeace
Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth deserves a voice.
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.
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