Last year, the Auckland Council passed a climate change plan, setting goals of halving emissions by 2030, and net-zero by 2050. You'd expect their future plans and policies to be consistent with this, but no: their new transport plan promises to increase emissions rather than reduce them:
While Transport Minister Michael Wood has hailed new investment in Auckland's transport network as "turning around transport emissions rising in Auckland", the programme will actually lead to increased emissions over the next decade when examined in isolation.So, I guess Lawyers for Climate Action will be taking them to court after all...That's because it fails to keep up with expected population growth.
The investment of an extra $3 billion for active and public transport builds on $28 billion in local and central government spending announced for the city in 2018, called the Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) 2021-2031. While the older plan would have seen emissions from transport in Auckland rise 9 percent by 2031, the new cash for green initiatives pushes that increase down to 6 percent. On a per capita basis, emissions will indeed fall 13 percent - but emissions reduction targets are based on total emissions, not per capita.
