Kia haukino kore te rāngai kāwanatanga Towards a carbon-neutral government sector

In December 2020 the Government launched its Carbon Neutral Government Programme (CNGP) 74 alongside its declaration of a climate change emergency 75 . The objectives of the CNGP are to reduce government emissions at an accelerated rate and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.

Cabinet has directed that participating agencies must:

• measure, verify and (starting in 2021/22) report emissions annually
• by December 2022, set gross emissions reduction targets and longer-term reduction plans for the next decade
• introduce a phased work programme to reduce emissions
• by December 2025, offset remaining emissions to achieve carbon neutrality.

We are taking our responsibilities to reduce carbon emissions seriously, and we regard the CNGP as a priority programme. We are on track with our preparation for moving towards a carbon-neutral state. We have established a Green House Gas inventory 76 and set carbon emissions reduction targets out to 2025 and beyond. We are a Premium Plus member (the top level) of Toitū Envirocare’s CarbonReduce programme. 

In setting up a programme for implementing the CNGP within MSD, we spoke with Māori and Pacific reference groups, to align the programme with our strategic direction as set out in Te Pae Tata and create opportunities to partner with our Māori staff, who have a strong sense of being kaitiaki of our environment and preserving our taonga. We are encouraging all MSD people to take an active part in achieving the CNGP’s objectives. 

We will provide a summary report on our progress on these initiatives in future Annual Reports, starting from next year.