The real climate change villains

OPINION: Are households getting a free ride while businesses bear the brunt of the cost of climate change? The trouble is, the above question can’t be asked aloud politically.

After all, what politician would tell voters they should be paying more for their petrol and electricity? It's an inherently unpopular position, and our political system is set up to punish anyone who asks it.

That's a damn shame, because if anyone needs a price signal kick up the backside when it comes to energy efficiency, it's households.

Statistics New Zealand's lousily named 'Measuring New Zealand's progress using a sustainable development approach' report looked at New Zealand's energy and emissions intensity by measuring how much energy we use and greenhouse gas we produce for every dollar of GDP.

It's a measure of how efficient we are, and we've done pretty well. Between 1990 and 2007 our energy intensity fell by 14 percent and emissions intensity fell by 28 percent.

The bad news is most of the gains didn't come through new technology or efforts to reduce energy use.

They simply came through a rapid growth in the service sector, which uses much less energy.

Between 1997 and 2006, the service sector's energy usage barely increased, but it accounted for three-quarters of the total GDP growth.

Because it grew so rapidly, it shifted our economy towards the service sector, so our national energy profile looks better.

Unfortunately, the result outside of the service sector hasn't been so flash.

The industrial and primary sectors' energy use actually increased by 14 percent during this time, and the primary sector's energy intensity increased substantially.

All of our productive sectors combined increased their energy usage by 37.5 petajoules between 1997 and 2006.

Household energy usage increased by 50PJ. Between 1997 and 2006, the majority of the increase in energy usage came from households, not businesses.

Not to put too fine a point on it, it's their fault.

Households' total energy consumption jumped by 46 percent between 1997 and 2006. They've also grown much faster than the rest of the economy.

In 1997, they accounted for 26 percent of total energy consumed in New Zealand. In 2006, they accounted for 31 percent.

Since households are not 'producers' per se, Statistics New Zealand measures their energy use against how much they spend to get a basic measure of energy intensity. It turns out that for much of the period between 1997 and 2006, their energy intensity was increasing. While that gap narrowed in the last few years, they are still using more energy for every dollar of consumption than they were in 1997.

Two-thirds of the energy consumed by households is in petrol and diesel.

In other words, cars. In energy terms, household consumption of petrol and diesel increased by 72 percent between 1997 and 2006.

You should read that last sentence again. New Zealand households burned 72 percent more petrol in 2006 than they did in 1997. How much improvement in the quality of life did we gain from that additional petrol? You've got to wonder.

While our productive sectors have been slowly making the first steps towards a low-carbon economy, households have bought bigger cars.

And until the politics change, and we stop sheltering households while putting the cost onto businesses, this deep imbalance will keep festering.

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