18 February 2011: The UNFCCC Secretariat has published a report presenting the results of the in-depth review of the fifth national communication (NC5) of New Zealand conducted by the expert review team (ERT).

The report indicates that the ERT concluded that New Zealand’s NC5 provides a good overview of the national climate policy. The information provided in the NC5 includes almost all the mandatory information required by the UNFCCC reporting guidelines with the exception of the total effect of policies and measures (PaMs) in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and the provision of the drivers and assumptions of future projections for individual sectors. The ERT finds that New Zealand has provided in its NC5 almost all the supplementary information required under Article 7, paragraph 2, of the Kyoto Protocol, with exception of the elaboration of supplementarity, information on the steps New Zealand has taken to promote and/or implement any decisions by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in order to limit or reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) not controlled by the Montreal Protocol from aviation and marine bunker fuels. The review report indicates that New Zealand’s emissions for 2008 were estimated to be 22.8% above its 1990 level, excluding land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), and 62.5% above its 1990 level with LULUCF. [New Zealand NC5]