Planning for reduced carbon emissions

Greater Wellington Regional Council’s Transport Committee has agreed to priorities for transport including contributing to targets that will see reductions in transport-generated emissions.

Transport Committee Chair Roger Blakeley says the committee agreed to strategic priorities for the 2019-22 triennium.

“These priorities are reductions in transport-generated regional carbon emissions, increases in regional mode share for public transport and active modes, early delivery of public transport elements of Let’s Get Wellington Moving, and more funding for regional rail,” Cr Blakeley says.

One of the key performance measures for these targets is the contribution to a 30 per cent reduction in regional transport-generated carbon emissions by 2030.

“Greater Wellington will contribute to this target by accelerating the electrification of the public transport vehicle fleet to a total of 100 electric buses by June 2023."

The transport-generated carbon emissions target meets the target in the national Climate Change Response Act 2002 of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It also recognises the recommendation of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October 2018, which recommended that countries reduce their carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 to avoid a "climate catastrophe".