Reducing Transport Carbon Emissions in Auckland

Strategic and Local Urban Planning Policies to make a difference....

I was required to do an assignment for a Masters Sustainable Development paper I'm taking at Auckland University. And here it is. The research requirement provided me with a very useful opportunity to look at the past 15 years of Auckland's regional and local planning, and how effective it has been....

Here is the Introduction and Executive Summary of the assignment, which I recommend unreservedly to anyone interested in Auckland planning. At the end of this section of the report you will see a link where you can download the full paper....

1. Introduction

The purpose of this report is to examine and analyse the policy framework that exists in Auckland whose purpose is to shape, direct and manage the sustainability of regional and local urban development in terms of its demand for carbon based energy for transport and its consequent production of greenhouse gas emissions.

The New Zealand Government has recently announced (NZGovt, 2009) that it is: “prepared to take on a responsibility target for greenhouse gas emissions reductions of between 10 per cent and 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020….”

Further Government information on the Ministry of Environment (MfE) website describes this target (NZGovt - MfE, 2009) thus:

“...a ’responsibility target’ means that New Zealand can meet its target through a mixture of domestic emission reductions, the storage of carbon in forests, and the purchase of emissions reductions in other countries…. New Zealand’s 2020 target forms part of a step towards ensuring that New Zealand’s long-term target to reduce emissions by 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050 (“50 by 50”) is achieved. Reaching the 50 by 50 goal is a significant challenge and it is important that we make a start now to give us a realistic chance of reaching it…. Because of New Zealand’s projected 35 per cent population growth over the period 1990 to 2020, our target reductions are more stringent when considered on a per capita basis. A target of 10 per cent below 1990 levels equates to a 35 per cent per capita reduction in emissions from 1990 to 2020. A target of 20 per cent below 1990 levels equates to a 42 per cent per capita reduction in emissions from 1990 to 2020….”

While there is criticism of Government’s greenhouse reduction targets (the NZ Green Party advocates reductions of 40% compared to Government’s highly conditioned proposals which range between 10% and 20%), even these will require significant structural changes in sectors of New Zealand’s economy, as well as behavioural change on the part of individuals.

Almost half the energy consumed in Auckland is for transport (MED, 2007) including private transport, public transport and freight transport. Most of this transport energy is derived from non-renewable fossil fuels which burn to produce energy and greenhouse gases. This relatively wasteful use of transport energy (Newman and Kenworthy, 1999) will need to change for Auckland to play its part in reducing New Zealand’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Adding weight to this imperative is the need to ensure that Auckland’s transport systems become less reliant upon increasingly scarce and increasingly expensive fossil fuels.

There are many ways of reducing Auckland’s carbon-based transport footprint, such as improving public transport, using lower emission vehicles, more walking and cycling, and others. This report concentrates on the effect on transport energy of Auckland’s land use patterns - which are dispersed following decades of sprawling development – and examines policy options to improve and change Auckland’s urban development form so it uses transport energy more efficiently and less wastefully, and is thereby responsible for less green house gas emissions than now.

This first section of this report examines and analyses relevant policies and strategies in force in Auckland region now, to address the matter of Auckland’s transport energy demands and the related carbon emissions, and specifically those policies operative in North Shore City.

The next section of this report introduces and describes a range of policy options in use and under active consideration in other OECD countries, which are aimed at reducing transport demand and related emssions by changing and influencing land use patterns.

These policy options are then assessed in the final section of this report in terms of their applicability and acceptability in Auckland New Zealand.

2. Executive Summary

Auckland’s regional strategic and local urban planning documents comprehensively recognise that the energy intensive and green gas emitting character of Auckland’s transport system can be mainly attributed to Auckland’s dispersed and sprawling urban form.

However, apart from the powerful Metropolitan Urban Limit policy contained in the Auckland Regional Policy Statement that became fully operative in 1999, there is a remarkable paucity of other effective policies that will head Auckland’s development pattern in a compact, less carbon-intensive direction. This is confirmed by the findings of detailed analysis led by the Auckland Regional Council and set out in Growing Smarter (2007). Further policy ideas that would lead to a more compact urban form and reduced green house gas emissions from transport are contained in Auckland’s Long Term Sustainability Framework, in particular a range of densification and development measures.

Most of the world’s cities are attending to similar problems, and there is much that can be learned from their experiences. Casual assessment suggests that Auckland would be low on any list compiled to rank the effectiveness of policies and initiatives being taken by cities to reduce the need for travel and related green house gas emissions by changing the development and redevelopment of city urban form.

The VIBAT – Visioning and Back Casting Transport – innovation being carried out now in London with support from Greater London Authority and the UK Givernment Department for Transport is exemplary because of its focus on linking green house gas emissions reductions to specific policy initiatives, and carrying out this assessment in a way which is widely accessible to the public and interested stakeholder organisations. Auckland can learn from this work in many ways. One of the recommendations of this report is that we need a VIBAT system for Auckland.

Closer to home – in the sense that city development in Canada more closely resembles Auckland’s urban form - the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (VPTI) is a store-house of policy ideas that focus on successful compact city development. I note that the VIBAT work has leaned heavily on the research findings of VPTI in regard to urban form impact on travel demand and green house gas emissions. VPTI advice that reductions in travel demand of between 20% and 40% may be achieved through a mix of policies aimed at producing an urban form which leads to significantly less demand for private car travel.

This report brings together relevant policy recommendations from research carried out in Auckland, plus VIBAT and VPTI work, and sets out a number of policy packages and other initiatives that would guide Auckland’s urban development in a more sustainable direction than where it is heading now.

The recommendations are for National, Regional and Local levels...."

Enjoy. Download Joel's Paper