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Greenhouse gas concentrations

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere have increased steadily since pre-industrial times.

Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the most significant driver of climate change since pre-industrial times. Natural influences such as climate oscillations can also lead to climate fluctuations. However, by increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, humans are having a profound impact on our climate.

Nearly half of our emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane from farm animals. Our energy sector is the second-largest contributor, mainly carbon dioxide resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels for various purposes like driving, air travel, manufacturing and coal-fired electricity generation.

The following resources provide information about atmospheric greenhouse gases and how we know human activities have driven rapid increases in emissions.

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Diagram: Ministry for the Environment, Stats NZ, and data providers, and licensed by the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Rights: Crown copyright ©, CC BY 4.0
Published:04 September 2024