Māori economy emissions profile

Where are Māori vulnerable, and what are the opportunities?

Business and Economic Research Limited (BERL) and Land Use Capability Assessments (LUCA) were commissioned by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) to create an emissions profile for the Māori economy. The aim of the project was to help MPI and MBIE understand vulnerabilities and opportunities for the Māori economy in the transition to a low emissions economy.

Our study took a macro-economic approach to establish a Māori economy emissions profile. This approach used the gross domestic product (GDP) data from the Te Ōhanga Māori 2018 report data sets, together with sector-based emissions data from Statistics New Zealand.

The research shows that the Māori economy is overrepresented in New Zealand’s emission profile. This is due to the industries that the Māori economy is concentrated in, particularly the proportionally larger role of livestock agriculture. However it is important to note that the findings in this report do not in any way suggest that Māori agriculture has a greater emissions intensity than non-Māori agriculture.

Climate change mitigation creates risks and challenges for the Māori economy, but it also brings opportunities. There are opportunities to reduce emissions from high emissions industries (e.g. primary sector), expand low emissions industries (education), and create and grow industries that are transition-aligned (i.e. the sharing economy).

The report can be found on MBIE’s website here or MPI’s website here.