95% lack efficiency targets, NZ ranking drops and the most emitting city is…
In this issue:
95% of large companies have no energy efficiency target
That’s the rather frightening conclusion of an analysis of over 9,500 company returns to CDP from companies who account for around 13% of global electricity demand. These companies are performing poorly when it comes to energy. Only 29% of electricity purchases are from renewable sources, which is below the global proportion of renewable generation and only 10% have 100% renewable electricity targets. Despite it invariably being the most cost effective means to reduce emissions, less than 5% have energy efficiency targets.
NZ climate performance drops to rank 41st
The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) has ranked 63 countries that account for 90% of global emissions for their climate performance and New Zealand sits at a lowly 41st., behind countries like Nigeria, Pakistan, Mexico, Vietnam and India. At the top of the rankings come, in order, Denmark, Netherlands, UK, Philippines and Morocco. The comparison below reveals it is in climate policy that NZ really lags.
Fossil emissions hit new peak
2024 was another record year of carbon emissions from fossil fuels according to the Global Carbon Project in its 2025 Global Carbon Budget. Total carbon dioxide emissions for 2024 are projected to be 41.6 billion tonnes, 37.4 billion tonnes being from fossil fuels, an increase of 0.8% over 2023. Decreases are predicted for Europe (3.8%), the US (0.6%) while increases are expected for China (0.2%), India (4.6%) and the rest of the world (1.1%). Emissions from aviation and shipping are expected to go up 7.8% but remain below pre-pandemic levels.
4 million and counting
The Australian renewables sector has just passed the milestone of 4 million households with solar installations. That means around a third of all Australian houses have solar installations. The next target, according to the Smart Energy Council, is to see 1 million household battery installations across the country by 2030.
And the world's most emitting city is …….
Shanghai. That’s according to Climate Trace’s ranking of highest emitting cities. Covering over 9,000 cities, Shanghai came out as the city with the highest level of GHG emissions at 256 million tonnes, followed by Tokyo (250 million tonnes), New York City (160 million tonnes), Houston (150 million tonnes) and Seoul (142 million tonnes).
1,773 too many
As a group, fossil fuel lobbyists would be the fourth largest delegation at COP29. Kick Big Polluters Out alleges 1,773 fossil fuel lobbysits have been granted access to the event, a number exceeded only by the delegations from Azerbaijan (2,229), Brazil (1,914) and Türkiye (1,862).
Adaptive cruise control – fuel friend or foe?
It’s very tempting at times, when on the motorway, to switch on the adaptive cruise control and let the tech keep a safe distance for you. But what does that mean for fuel consumption? Like many things, apparently it depends. In standard cruising mode, it uses more fuel, approximately 0.14 L/100 km according to the study from researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois, attributable to maintaining a constant speed over changing terrain, where a human will tend to allow the vehicle to slow and increase pace more flexibly. However, when following another vehicle, it can reduce consumption, economy being improved when the driver ahead slows but not correspondingly penalised if the driver ahead exceeds the cruise speed set.