MBIE plans green building reform to address climate change
New Zealand is 
now on the path to a low emission, climate resilient future. The Government has committed to being Carbon Zero by 2050 and has established the Climate Change Commission to support this journey.
As the regulator and owner of a number of key areas contributing to climate change, the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) has a significant role to play in achieving these critical long-term goals. One of these key areas is the Building and Construction Sector.
MBIE recently released its plans to transform the building and construction sector to reduce emissions and increase climate resistance.
The building and construction sector is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions from:
›using energy in buildings
›producing construction materials, constructing buildings, and the waste from demolished buildings.
A recent piece of life cycle-based research conducted by thinkstep-ANZ on behalf of the Green Building Council estimated that it contributes around 20% of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, taking into account all the material used by the sector. In a similar way, the Fifth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014) estimated that globally buildings account for 32% of energy use and 19% of energy related emissions.
Read the plan document here.