Abstract
Dunedin City Council has developed ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the city. Achieving these targets will require significant changes in energy use. It is important to have an accurate assessment of current energy use in the city and associated greenhouse gas emissions. This is necessary to be able to benchmark progress, determine areas of focus and to evaluate the impact of decarbonization initiatives.
The Dunedin Energy Study is a joint research project between the Dunedin City Council (DCC) and the University of Otago aimed at assessing energy inputs into the city of Dunedin and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
In this study, “Dunedin” refers to the area under jurisdiction of the Dunedin City Council (DCC), which is surrounded by Waitaki District in the north, Central Otago District in the west, Clutha District in the south and the Pacific Ocean in the east.
This is the seventh consecutive year this study has been run and investigates energy consumption within Dunedin during the 2020 financial year (2020FY), referring to the financial year period 1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021. Approximately one month of the study period was impacted by Covid19 restrictions.
This study was conducted between January 2022 and August 2022, and provides an estimation of the total amount of each energy type used within the city, along with an indication of the end uses of energy, and energy-related greenhouse gas emissions.