We know climate change is a problem, so now what?
New Zealanders overwhelmingly believe climate change is real, and put the responsibility to address it on the shoulders of business, according to new research. The Government-funded Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), which works to improve energy efficiency, commissioned a study from the market insight agency TRA to find out what people and businesses thought about climate change. The survey of 1000 people found more than 80 per cent agreed climate change is real, and about the same number agreed that we could all be doing more to combat the global rise in temperature, including individually and at the government level. But 88 per cent of respondents said companies needed to do more to reduce their impact on the environment. "When it came down to the expectation at large of who should be doing more certainly business was pointed at in that regard," EECA chief executive Andrew Caseley said. READ MORE: * Milk processor Synlait takes coal out of dairy with its new electric and gas boilers * Dairy industry committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions * Fonterra commits to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 Kiwi consumers also felt they could step-up. More than 75 per cent of respondents said they could do more themselves to reduce emissions. "It's heartening to see so many New Zealanders are already very much on board with the need to reduce our climate change emissions," Caseley said. About half of the surveyed group said they were "doing a bit" to combat climate change, but 14 per cent said they were not doing anything at all, although 7 per cent of those wanted to start taking action. Four per cent said they were "doing a lot" and could not do any more. Around 50 per cent agreed climate change would impact their lifestyle Of those surveyed, 76 per cent said the government needed to do more to help reduce New Zealand's impact on the environment. ECCA said energy use was the biggest area where improvements could be made, and it was important to choose energy options that would reduce carbon emissions no matter how small. Business signalled a readiness to make change, with 62 per cent of the 400 business respondents stating they had a moral duty to improve the environment, and only 5 per cent disagreed. Addressing the low-hanging fruit with technology such as LED lighting and heat pumps was an easy win for households and businesses. For businesses that wanted to make changes, looking at energy spend and transport costs was the first step. It was often a clue to where consumption could be reduced, the agency said. "It's extraordinary how what you would consider to be big sophisticated organisation, the opportunities that they identify when they go through that discipline," Caseley said. More challenging for some businesses was heat generation, especially in agriculture. But some businesses were already taking the lead, he said. "Synlait announced this week that they're finalising the commissioning of their new boiler. Fonterra has done it at their Brightwater plant, they are now co-firing there with biomass instead of just using entirely coal. We're seeing it with some of the processes in the meat industry, where they're looking at new heat pump technologies." Businesses were not putting their heads in the sand with regard to costs either, the research showed, with 62 per cent of businesses agreeing that taking action would increase costs. Caseley said that Synlait's new boiler would "undoubtedly" be more expensive to run, but it was moves like this that were encouraging a sea change. "It's now more evident that some of the larger energy users are moving in the direction of a greater proportion of renewables in their energy use." For businesses looking to adopt more energy efficient technology, the agency advises businesses to review normal asset replacement cycles and upgrade inefficient items at the end of life or when a significant upgrade was scheduled. "That's the time to really do a broad scan to see what the options are," Caseley said. For new businesses there was an opportunity to adopt more energy efficient technology and practices from the outset before hefty investments were made. "The technology is changing all the time but give yourself time to look at what the options are to use what are a lot of emerging and proven technologies and get your advisers to incorporate those in new designs." * Comments on this story have closed.