Pure Advantage’s new independent report, Green Growth: Opportunities for New Zealand, is the first robust analytical assessment of New Zealand’s green growth economic opportunities within a global context.
The macroeconomic review was prepared by internationally renowned economists Vivid Economics of London in conjunction with the University of Auckland Business School.
Prepared as a basis to establish, in consultation with industry, seven industry-specific green growth programmes, the report addresses a detailed set of questions around three core areas:
- NZ’s green growth performance in the context of global opportunities,
- A sectoral assessment of comparative advantage and green performance, and
- The extent of future green growth opportunities and specific sectors, which could benefit and ultimately transform the NZ economy.
‘Green Growth: Opportunities for New Zealand’ can be summarised into six points:
- A green economy offers the opportunity to improve the overall wellbeing of all New Zealanders, by viewing economic growth and environmental improvement in a holistic manner.
- New Zealand could benefit from global green investment patterns in two main ways: by exporting to nations investing in green goods and services and by importing new technology and ideas to create efficiencies at home.
- The potential economic opportunities are significant - the IEA estimates that global investments in low carbon energy alone could reach more than US$3 trillion per year by 2050, if the world shifts to an ambitious green growth trajectory.
- New Zealand should focus on sectors where it already has an advantage or where its natural capital is best suited to capturing future advantages.
- The best green growth export opportunities for New Zealand include sustainable efficient agricultural products and services, geothermal energy, biotechnology and forestry, including second-generation bio fuels. In the domestic economy, opportunities include improvements in building and transport energy efficiency, electricity grid technology and matching brand credibility through improved biodiversity management.
- These opportunities generally require action from both industry and government; however, there are steps which private industry can take immediately and unilaterally.
The value in the report lies in the fact that it gives feasible export orientated and domestic solutions to allow new green growth within each of New Zealand’s key sectors, but importantly the actions needed to achieve these with priorities based on relative lead and implementation times.
Pure Advantage has used the macroeconomic report to focus on seven key ‘advantages’ that New Zealand has in the green race, which are:
- Home Advantage: Retrofitting an efficient building environment;
- Geothermal Advantage: Creating a significant geothermal export industry
- Agricultural Advantage: Investing in sustainable and efficient agricultural technologies
- Waste-to-Energy Advantage: Installing bio-energy and waste-to-energy infrastructure
- Biofuel Advantage: Establishing a woody mass biofuel and bio-products industry
- Smart Grid Advantage: Installing the building blocks of a smart grid
- Biodiversity Advantage: Establishing a world-class biodiversity driven ecotourism and conservation education programme.
Find out more about Green Growth: Opportunities for New Zealand.
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