Energy & Society

To address the twin challengers of climate change and energy security, society's use of energy must change.  Humans’ influence on the global climate is well understood, with fossil fuels and the subsequent release of CO2 a major contributor.  Despite efforts to decrease these emissions, they continue to rise.  Like other OECD countries, New Zealand imports the majority of its oil; 82% of which is used for transport.  With increasing oil prices, and global production reaching a peak, addressing the issue of reduced energy availability, specifically in the transport sector, is of critical importance.  

The Energy and Society theme focuses on the energy services demanded by society, and how these services can be met given the twin challenges of climate change and energy security.  Although increasing renewable energy supplies is a vital part of the solution, understanding the energy services demanded by society, and how these services can be met with less energy input is equally important.  The wider impact to energy intensive industries is also examined.

Projects

Towards a renewable electricity system Electricity generation is a major contributor to green house gas emissions, particularly from coal fired power plants.  Using NZ as a case study, this project examines a number of mechanisms that would allow the supply to be largely renewable, and an increased amount of transport services to be switched to the electricity system. Click HERE for more.
Energy technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions A number of emerging energy technologies and energy systems have been proposed that would reduce society’s dependence on fossil fuel, hence reduce green house gas emissions.  This project examines a number of these, taking into account technical feasibility, progress to date and policy implications. Click HERE for more.
Tourism and Oil Tourism is an important sector contributing 19% to New Zealand’s export revenue. At the same time, tourism is extremely dependent on oil for both travel to and within New Zealand.  This project identified high-yielding adaptation measures for tourism to respond to global oil prices. Click HERE for more.
Peak Oil Think Tank In recent years there has been growing and well-founded concern that the world is reaching (or has already) ‘peak’ or ‘plateau’ of global oil production.  In 2010 LEaP Think Tank was formed to raise awareness of the seriousness of peak oil for New Zealand and to provide relevant knowledge to assist strategic planning for a transition to a low carbon economy. Click HERE for more

Latest News

NERI Winter Lights Forum - Thursday 16th June This Forum will consider New Zealand’s long-term energy future with an emphasis on the role of fossil fuels in transitioning the country to a more sustainable, low carbon economy. This is the first in a series of Thought Leadership Forums being planned and run by the National Energy Research Institute (NERI). More details can be found here.

Symposium on the Future of Coal - Tuesday 17 of May 2011, Ilot Theatre, Wellington Convention Centre.  Key note speaker Dr. James Hansen – distinguished American atmospheric physics and author of Storms of my Grandchildren. Other speakers include Don Elder - CEO of Solid Energy;  Jan Wright - Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and Shannon Page -Lincoln University.  Presentations from the day can be found here 

November 2010: SPOTLIGHT 2010- Official magazine of the Responsible Tourism Day at the London World Travel Market. Features great case studies from around the world, including LEaP research on tourism and oil. Download here.

Parliamentary Report: The next Oil Shock? The US Department of Energy (DoE) calls oil “the lifeblood of modern civilisation”. Around 86 million barrels (13.7 billion litres) are consumed each day. Oil supplies 37 percent of the world’s energy demand,  including 40 percent of New Zealand’s energy demand.  It powers nearly all of the world’s transportation, without which production and trade would grind to a halt. Studies have shown that GDP growth is very strongly related to increased use of oil. When the price of oil increases, the cost of nearly all economic activity rises. This often induces recessions. High oil prices have been associated with three major periods of economic recession in the past 40 years, including the lead-up to the recent global economic crisis. The world’s oil production capacity may not be sufficient to match growing demand in coming years. The potential for short-falls arises from geological, infrastructure, and political/economic constraints limiting the ability of world oil production capacity to grow while demand continues to rise. If oil supply cannot meet demand a price spike may be triggered, with major detrimental effects on economies, especially those heavily dependent on oil imports like New Zealand.

2 September 2010

Peak Oil - Report by the German Military.

1 September 2010

LEaP Submission to the Draft NZ Energy Strategy, Ministry of Economic Development