New research from the office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment reveals that about 107 million tonnes of natural resources were required to produce the goods and services consumed by New Zealanders in 2019 – approximately 21 tonnes per person on average.

This ‘natural resource footprint’ is detailed in a research note released today by the office of the Commissioner. Entitled, Resource use and waste generation in Aotearoa New Zealand: filling (some) gaps, the note summarises the next stage of a major investigation into how natural resources are used and disposed of in New Zealand. This work involved in-house and contracted research on New Zealand’s natural resource production and consumption.

“The footprint produced for 2019 is based on research that analysed how many tonnes of natural resources were extracted domestically, and how many tonnes were used in the production of huge variety of goods and services that New Zealand imports every year,” the Commissioner, Simon Upton explains.

“This research enabled my office to create the most complete picture, to date, of the quantity of natural resources required to support a ‘typical’ New Zealand lifestyle – regardless of where in the world those resources originated,” he says.

This research is one of five pieces of work commissioned by the Commissioner to fill information gaps in resource use and waste generation identified in the first stage of the investigation. The other research looks at plastic waste, metal requirements for the green energy transition, soil vulnerabilities and the environmental pressures of resource use.

The Commissioner hopes that releasing this information now will support evidence-based discussions on resource use and waste generation in New Zealand.

“Further work, including on what the future might bring, is needed before I can draw any conclusions about what this all means for environmental management in New Zealand or how we might shift the dial towards a more environmentally sustainable economy,” the Commissioner says.

The Commissioner’s final report on natural resource use and waste generation is hoped to be published within the next 18 months.

The natural resource footprint for 2019 found that:

107 million tonnes of natural resources (such as sand, gravel, meat, dairy, oil) were used in the production of the goods and services consumed by New Zealanders, equating to approximately 21 tonnes of natural resources per person on average.

Four basics, food, housing, infrastructure and transport, accounted for 72% of natural resource use.

Around 60% of the resources consumed in New Zealand were extracted overseas and imported. Available data suggests the share of our resource needs imported from other countries has increased over recent decades.

130–135 million tonnes of natural resources were extracted from New Zealand (excluding water), 90% of this was organic materials (food, wood, crops) and non-metallic minerals such as limestone, coal and clay.

One third of domestically extracted resources were consumed here, while two thirds were exported either as raw commodities (e.g. logs or coal) or ‘embedded’ within processed products (e.g. meat or steel).

New Zealand’s resource use has almost doubled in the last 25 years, growing roughly in line with incomes.

Note:

Water has not been included in the natural resource footprint as current deficiencies in data means it is not possible to compile a nationally consistent account of New Zealand’s water use.

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