WELLINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions rose 24 percent in the past 25 years, but grew more slowly than the economy in general, the statistics department Stats NZ said on Tuesday.

The first report of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounts released on Tuesday showed the impact of what people are doing to the natural environment and what is being done to protect it, as well as the importance of natural resources to the economy.

Economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions increased from 1990 to 2015 from 61 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 1990, to about 76 million tons in 2015, the latest available period, according to the report.

New Zealand's emissions from economic activity, excluding emissions and removals from land-use change and the forestry sector, hit a peak in 2005, declined until 2009, and rose moderately after that, statistics show.

The rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions however, including carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and methane from agriculture, was slower than the rate of increase in GDP leading to a decline in greenhouse gas intensity, Stats NZ said.

"New Zealand is producing more greenhouse gases, but is being much more efficient in doing so," environmental-economic statistics senior manager Michele Lloyd said, adding that New Zealand's emissions amount to about 0.17 percent of the world's total.