Environmental-economic Accounts: Data To 2024

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 current prices for the year ended March.

Key facts

In the year ended March 2024:

• total environmental taxes were $6.0 billion, most of which were transport (50.4 percent) and energy (44.9 percent) taxes. From 2023 to 2024, environmental taxes increased 14.3 percent ($748 million).
• the marine economy contributed $5.2 billion to New Zealand's gross domestic product (GDP). This was an increase of 7.4 percent compared with 2023. The contribution of the marine economy to GDP in 2024 was 1.2 percent.
• the total asset value of renewable energy was $11.9 billion. Hydro generation made up 67.8 percent of total asset value, followed by geothermal (20.2 percent).
• central and local government expenditure on environmental protection (on a final consumption basis) increased 9.8 percent ($277 million) to total $3.1 billion. Local government contributed 66.9 percent ($2.1 billion) to this total, and central government contributed 33.1 percent ($1.0 billion).

Environmental protection expenditure

In the year ended March 2024, final consumption expenditure (FCE) and gross fixed capital formation (GFKF) on environmental protection increased for both central and local government.

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.

• Central government environmental protection FCE increased 13.8 percent ($125 million).
• Local government environmental protection FCE increased 7.9 percent ($152 million).

The increase in the local government environmental protection final consumption expenditure was mainly driven by higher expenditure on wastewater services (up 7.3 percent or $84 million) and solid waste/refuse management (up 17.7 percent or $65 million). It was partly offset by a $6 million (2.2 percent) decrease in expenditure on flood, river, land, and soil management.

Environmental protection GFKF is investment in fixed assets used for activities such as pollution abatement, waste and wastewater management, biodiversity protection, and other measures to prevent or reduce environmental degradation.

• Central government environmental protection GFKF increased 7.2 percent ($8 million).
• Local government environmental protection GFKF increased 17.2 percent ($240 million).

The increase in the local government environmental protection GFKF was mainly driven by investment in wastewater infrastructure (up 13.5 percent, or $167 million) and flood, river, land, and soil-management projects (up 68.0 percent, or $68 million).

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 ended March 2024, environmental taxes increased 14.3 percent ($748 million) to a total of nearly $6.0 billion, making up 4.4 percent of total revenue from taxes and social security contributions. The key movements were:

• transport base, up 13.0 percent ($347 million)
• energy base, up 13.5 percent ($319 million)
• pollution base, up 61.6 percent ($61 million).

The increase in total environmental taxes in the year ended March 2024 was primarily driven by a $347 million rise (up 13.0 percent) in the revenue from the transport tax base. This growth reflected higher taxes associated with vehicle ownership and road use, particularly road user charges. Temporary reductions to petrol excise duty and road user charges were in place only during the first quarter of the March 2024 year, compared with most of the March 2023 year when these relief measures were fully in effect. The reductions were introduced in 2022 as a government response to higher living costs. Taxes from the transport base comprised 50.4 percent of total environmental tax revenue in the year ended March 2024.

Cost of living transport support package now extended has more information on temporary reductions.

Taxes from the energy base increased by $319 million (up 13.5 percent), contributing further to the overall rise in total environmental tax. This increase was mainly driven by higher taxes on energy products used for transport purposes. It was partly offset by a $17 million decrease in taxes on greenhouse gases. Taxes from the energy base comprised 44.9 percent of environmental tax revenue, similar to the previous year.

Revenue from the pollution tax base increased due to the waste disposal levy expansion and represented 2.7 percent of environmental tax revenue in the year ended March 2024. The remaining environmental tax bases, 'other' and 'resources', together accounted for 2.1 percent.

Waste disposal levy expansion has more information.

In the year ended March 2024, industries contributed 55.6 percent of total environmental taxes collected, households contributed 14.6 percent, and the remaining 29.8 percent was unallocated. The decline in the industry share from 75.9 percent in 2022 and 57.3 percent in 2023 is associated with an increase in unallocated taxes, including the fuel duties portion of customs imports duties. Prior to the closure of the refinery, taxes on petroleum products previously classified to industry are now classified as import duties and unallocated to industry.

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 year ended March 2024, the marine economy directly contributed $5.2 billion to New Zealand's gross domestic product (GDP). This was an increase of 7.4 percent compared with the year ended March 2023, though the overall contribution of the marine economy to total GDP remained at 1.2 percent.

In the year ended March 2024, hydrogeneration was the largest contributor to the total asset value of renewables, at 67.8 percent. Other contributors were:

• geothermal - 20.2 percent
• wind - 9.1 percent
• wood - 1.1 percent
• solar - 1.1 percent
• biogas - 0.8 percent.

Wind and solar were the only generation types to show an asset value increase in the March 2024 year, up 7.7 percent and 25.9 percent respectively, compared with the previous year. In the March 2024 year, the asset value of solar generation surpassed the asset value of wood generation for the first time since our time series began in 2007.

Definitions and metadata

Environmental-economic accounts: Data to 2024 - DataInfo+ presents the data sources and methods used for the compilation of each of the environmental-economic accounts.

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
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04 931 4312

ISSN 2624-0777

Next release

Environmental-economic accounts: Data to 2025 is scheduled for release in March 2027.