EECA supporting Kiwi businesses to decarbonise
EECA has its finger on the pulse of New Zealand business, working across industries to help organisations cut their energy costs and save emissions. It also regularly surveys the wider business community to test where they stand on climate change. Are they concerned? Taking action? How does it stack up against other business priorities?
The most recent results highlight some concerning trends, alongside a window of opportunity. There have been fundamental shifts in the mindset of New Zealand businesses, since the start of the pandemic, and many businesses are taking a backwards step when it comes to climate action. We’re at a critical moment.
Support for climate change action is declining, Many New Zealand businesses are feeling pressure from other areas, with well over a third believing that climate change won't impact them. Businesses also see no reason to act, with only around one in five feelings any pressure from customers and suppliers to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and 43% say New Zealand is too small to have any real impact on the environment.
EECA has a number of programmes, including co-funding, to support private and public sector businesses. They include:
- Energy transition Accelerator (ETA): the ETA programme was launched to enable our largest energy users – those that emit more than 10,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per annum - to take a leading role in New Zealand’s low carbon future. EECA works with businesses to create a roadmap to transition to energy-efficient systems and processes and to decarbonise their operations. Most of these emissions come from fossil-fuelled process heat. Businesses use 51% of New Zealand’s energy – excluding transport – and generate 42% of our energy-related emissions, so decarbonising industrial processes will have a huge, positive, impact.
- Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry Fund (GIDI): The GIDI Fund is a partnership between Government and business to accelerate the decarbonisation of industrial process heat and contribute to the COVID-19 recovery by stimulating the domestic economy and supporting employment. Process heat makes up around a third of New Zealand's overall energy use, and 60% of process heat is fossil-fuelled, mainly by gas and coal. EECA administers the GIDI Fund on behalf of the Government through a contestable process that will see $69 million of capital grants co-investment made available to support good projects.
- The State Sector Decarbonisation Fund, administered by EECA, aims to reduce carbon emissions from the public sector by supporting schools, tertiary institutions, hospitals, government agencies, and local councils to decarbonise and reach the public sector carbon neutral 2025 goal. The investment focuses on replacing fossil-fuelled boilers in hospitals and tertiary institutions with low-emissions alternatives such as biomass boilers and heat pumps. We work with the Ministry of Education to replace coal boilers in schools.
- EECA also supports the public sector by providing expert advice, technical support, and facilitate low-emissions energy investments.
- EECA new Gen Less campaign, “The Right Side of History”, challenges individuals and businesses to share what they’re doing to tackle climate change. This is a great opportunity to role-model your decarbonisation work, and to gain some publicity for your organisation.
Get in touch through your EECA account manager or by emailing rightside@eeca.govt.nz.