Auckland Council's Climate Plan aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Photo / Michael Craig
Auckland Council's Climate Plan aims to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Photo / Michael Craig
Auckland Council’s climate plan is not remotely tracking towards the target of halving overall emissions by 2030, councillors heard today.
Officers said the plan has made “modest progress”, but on the number one issue of reducing the city’s transport emissions they are not remotely tracking towards a higher figure of 64 per cent reduction by the end of the decade.
The 2030 target keeps getting steeper, acting chief sustainability officer Lauren Simpson, told councillors, bringing councillors to talk about the plan being on a cliff edge and comparing the challenge to a cricket chase.
The climate plan, Te Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri, has been in place since 2019 when the council unanimously voted to declare a climate emergency. Its main goals are to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, and reach zero emissions by 2050.
A third of the way into the programme, just 3 per cent of the actions have been completed, 31 per cent of actions are on track, 52 per cent are underway but require more work, and 13 per cent are not in progress.
The Climate Plan aims for more cycleways as an alternative to driving.
And when it comes to making progress on the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions - transport - increased investment in public transport, walking and cycling has fallen short, and been compounded by money being redirected towards repairs following the summer storm events, the 2023 update said.
One bright spot is the Climate Action Transport targeted rate introduced in July last year, providing a $1.056 billion investment boost to public transport, walking, cycling, and urban ngahere (forest) over 10 years.
Other positives highlighted in the update were 35 new e-buses with 44 more due to come into service this month, the construction of two new electric ferries, rail electrification from Papakura to Pukekohe, two new frequent bus services, and 46 per cent of new cars in the past year being electric or hybrid-powered.
Councilor Maurice Williamson said he studied a very obscure form of mathematics called catastrophe theory that tells you about the change needed to make a target.
After running it through some algorithms, he said the chance of hitting a 50 per cent cut in emissions by 2030 is less than 0.1 of 1 per cent even with a catastrophic change to circumstances.
“It’s a little bit like with three overs left of a cricket match and you are 109 runs behind, you can’t win because even with three overs and sixes on every ball you will only get 108 runs.
“When will we make a decision that we cannot meet that target, and a new one be set, because quite frankly your chances of hitting that now…are still very, very low,” he said.
Keeping with the cricket analogies, councillor Shane Henderson, who has played the sport since the age of six, said if the run rate is going up and you are chasing, you cannot cut the target, you have to swing for the fences and fight even harder.
Councillor Richard Hills says a lot of good is happening, it just needs ramping up.
Councillor John Watson, whose brother was a test cricketer, said what Auckland needed was a Lance Cairns or a Finn Allen coming in at number eight or nine to activate the run chase because that is what is needed to address climate change.
It was left to the chair of today’s planning, environment, and parks committee, Richard Hills, to sum up the issue, saying the council had faced difficult things in the past few years, but the issue of climate change is not going away.
The targets in the climate plan were unanimously approved, science-based, and based on the Paris Agreement, he said.
“I’m not keen to change our target. Yes, it does look like a cliff, but that’s the reality. We are not anywhere near where we are supposed to be, but there is a lot of good happening. We just need to ramp that up,” he said.
