Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment - Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Pāremata

Lignite Briefing to Local Government and Environment Select Committee

Lignite and Climate Change: The High Cost of Low Grade Coal

Lignite is very poor quality coal.

New Zealand has a lot of it.

But so do many other countries.

The lignite we have is in Southland and Otago.

It’s easy to get at – you can see how it sits in layers in the photo on front of report.

Some lignite is already being burned – for example, in the Edendale dairy factory.

But there are plans to increase the amount of lignite mined a hundred times or more.