Books and reports: Carbon Mitigation Scenarios 5 February 2008, Adolf Stroombergen	View PDF
The government's aspirations are for New Zealand to be 'carbon neutral' by 2050, with intermediate carbon neutrality goals for major sectors - electricity (2025), stationary energy (2030), transport (2040), total energy (2040). On a worldwide basis, carbon neutrality means carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions are offset by carbon absorption. For any given country, however, carbon neutrality may also include the purchase of carbon credits from other countries to offset domestic emissions, with neutrality being defined as applying only to emissions above a given benchmark - 1990 emissions under the Kyoto Protocol for the period to 2012... A goal of achieving carbon neutrality at a date as far out as 2050 is difficult to model meaningfully. Thus in this study we look at 2025 (also the focus of previous work for the Emissions Trading Group) and select a milestone for 2025 that relates to the 1990 benchmark and is consistent with the 2050 objective.