REVIEW REPORT FOR NEW ZEALAND (EXAMPLE)

3. Feedstocks and non-energy use of fuels
29. The non-energy use of bitumen, the use of natural gas as feedstock for methanol production and the amount of carbon contained in the coal used in iron and steel production are taken into account in the reference approach. The IPCC default value is used for the fraction of carbon stored in bitumen, and for confidentiality reasons only the total amount of carbon stored for the production of methanol is reported.

30. A carbon mass balance approach, which takes into account the amount of carbon contained in the fuel that is input to each manufacturing plant and the amount of carbon stored in the final products, is used for the chemicals category under manufacturing industries and construction. Emissions from both the energy and the industrial processes sectors are aggregated in the resulting estimates. CO₂ emissions from methanol are reported under the energy sector while CO₂ emissions associated with other chemical products (ammonia, urea, etc.) are reported under the industrial processes sector. To improve transparency, the ERT recommends that a better specification of reporting choices be provided in the next NIR. It is recommended that the estimation and reporting of the associated non-CO₂ emissions also be discussed.

4. Country-specific issues
31. Fugitive emissions of CO₂ and CH₄ from geothermal plant operations are estimated and reported. The NIR reports that these emissions are estimated on the basis of information obtained directly from geothermal field operators. The ERT assessed the information reported by New Zealand in the CRF in the context of recent publications (Bertani and Thain, 2002; Sheppard and Mroczeck, 2004) and concluded that these emission estimates can be considered as conservative. However, New Zealand is encouraged to improve transparency by providing information on estimation of emissions and QA/QC procedures used by the operators. As significant fluctuations in the trend of CO₂ and CH₄ emissions from geothermal power generation do not correlate with the AD, the ERT recommends that New Zealand provide information on the nature of this variability in its future submissions.

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