Population Total emissions Per capita total emissions Transport emissions Per capita transport emissions % transport emissions of total emissions | London* 7.3 million 44.3 MtCO2 6,068 kg/person 9.6 MtCO2 1,315 kg/person 22% | Auckland** 1.2 million 11.93 MtCO2 9,941 kg/person 5.14 MtCO2 4,283 kg/person 43% |
* Halcrow Group et al, 2009 VIBAT Stage 1 Report, p.58 (see:www.vibat.org)
** ARC Modelling
So. Aucklanders are responsible - on average - for THREE TIMES more transport CO2 emissions compared to Londoners, due to our higher travel demands and greater transport energy use. Interestingly, London's relatively low transport carbon footprint, the UK Government and Greater London Authority are jointly getting on with a set of policy initiatives to reduce this carbon demand (due to transport) by 60% by 2030.
The UK is taking CO2 emissions - and transport energy efficiency - very seriously.
I wonder when our Government will get round to translating its 10 - 20% CO2 reductions by 2020 target it has commited NZ to at Copenhagen, into policies and strategies that will reduce transport energy in Auckland....
And I wonder what we need to do as a region to ensure that our new Regional Land Transport Strategy also tackles this imperative....
But, hey ho, even if we do have a great little regionally agreed RLTS, Transport Minister Joyce doesn't seem to feel any need to give it any attention anyway. He's just advanced the biggest road building program NZ has seen. Totally in conflict with the current RLTS. Maybe he thinks it's a sign of economic strength and power to push Auckland's transport related CO2 emissions way up, so that then we can skite internationally that we emit FIVE TIMES more CO2 per capita getting around than our London mates. Now there's a claim to fame....
2 comments:
You not sure that's because most Londoners live either in a small flat or rent a room of someone, that the only people with individual houses are extraordinarily wealthy. Then when people live on top of each other, vast numbers live within walking distance of a rail and underground network that was built almost entirely by private enterprise before WW2 (and which was built to encourage urban sprawl and development near the stations, which it did!).
People in London put up with tight living space and moving around like sardines at peak times because of the career opportunities, and the liveliness of one of the world's great centres of commerce, art, culture and history.
Nobody moves to New Zealand to live like that. Indeed, the apartment market in Auckland is the most depressed, indicating that NZers don't want to sacrifice space just so planners can pack everyone together. A far fairer comparison would be with other new world cities - cities where people have a backyard for the kids to play in, where they have a small garden, have a spare room and don't all have walls adjoining their neighbours.
A lot of London suburbs are leafy and spacious. However there are many local employment opportunities as well. A significant factor in the low transport carbon footprint is the tube rail system, supported by bus. So people who do travel big distances to work use a low carbon method. While the market for low cost apartments in Auckland CBD is depressed, the market for quality apartments downtown is not. Auckland's challenge is to ensure that its polycentric approach (Manukau, Waitakere, Takapuna etc) is well enough designed and planned so as to ensure employment opportunities of quality establish in those other centres, AND that the streetscape in those centres is attractive enough to support walking, biking etc to work and school. Good public transport is a big help, but Auckland's other towns need to be developed so they have much more attractive public places in their own right than they have today. These are public & private development opportunities that need to be incentivised. Otherwise those urban areas will waste away....
London is just one example of the energy intensity of a developed urban environment. Auckland is undercooked by comparison. There is low hanging energy-fruit here. Needs to be recognised.
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