Image courtesy New Zealand Winegrowers Inc, Yealands Estate.

New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW) has released the New Zealand Wine Roadmap to Net Zero 2050. The launch was part of the Research & Innovation Forum, one of several events that make up the Altogether Unique 2024 annual wine celebrations, this year held on 30 August in Wellington.

The New Zealand wine industry has set the goal to be net zero by the year 2050. As defined in the newly released roadmap, net zero is achieved when an industry’s “total emissions and permanent removals balance out to zero”.

For the New Zealand wine industry, according to the roadmap, “net zero means reducing the current 2022 (baseline) GHG emissions by 90% by 2050 and neutralising the remaining 10% of emissions through emission removal projects”.

Fabian Yukich, chair of NZW environment committee, said the wine industry needed a pathway showing how to achieve this.

“Climate change is the biggest long-term challenge facing our industry,” said Yukic. “It will influence our choice of grape varieties, wine styles, viticultural techniques and regions, and importantly, the purchase decisions of our customers. Our response to climate change is critical to the reputation of New Zealand as a producer of high value, sustainable, premium quality wine.”

The roadmap was made possible through the support of EECA (Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority) and produced by thinkstep-anz. It identifies the industry’s current greenhouse gas emission (GHG) footprint and, consistent with the industry’s goal, it sets out where the wine industry needs to be at 2030, 2040 and 2050. According to NZW, the roadmap offers vineyards and wineries practical options for innovation that will help the industry to reduce its emissions as much as possible, as fast as possible.

“In the short term, reducing scope 1 emissions is the most practical approach, as scope 2 and 3 emissions will require innovation from across the value chain, in particular electricity generation, transport and packaging,” NZW said in announcing the roadmap.

Dr Edwin Massey, general manager sustainability at NZW, described the wine industry as having a “proud history of embracing challenges and turning them into opportunities”.

“Learning from each other, and from partners up and down our supply chain, will be critical to reducing emissions and meeting our 2050 goal,” said Dr Massey.

The Roadmap to Net Zero 2050 is just one component of the New Zealand wine industry’s commitment to sustainability. Since 1995, Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) has been the wine industry’s independently audited sustainability certification programme. Over nearly three decades, SWNZ has gained a global reputation for best practice in sustainable wine production, represented by the SWNZ logo on millions of bottles of New Zealand wine that are exported around the world.

“As wine consumers increasingly demand greater transparency of environmental credentials, this next step by the New Zealand wine industry will see that it is well poised to continue to hold onto its exceptional reputation as a leader in sustainable wine production,” said NZW.

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