Auckland Mayoral candidate Viv Beck says the Council’s transport emissions reduction pathway is more about virtue signalling than environmental outcomes and, if elected, is promising to put in place a practical, credible plan to bring down emissions.

“Council calls its plan ambitious, I call it unachievable as currently written,” says Viv. “The document is full of aspiration and good intentions, but there’s no detail on how the objectives will be achieved, costs and benefits, or comparison of different options.”

“This is a real and very pressing challenge. More than 40% of Auckland’s emissions come from transport and we need a real plan to deal with it.”

Viv says elements of the pathway do not correspond with what’s happening in the real world.

“Do they really believe we can increase cycling to 17% of all trips, up from 1% today? Or that we can reduce vehicle travel by 50%, when all the data shows it heading very steadily in the opposite direction? If so, they need to show us how it can happen.”

Also missing, says Viv, is any discussion of the social and economic impacts of the changes that are envisaged.

“Many of these initiatives, if they were to be realised, would place enormous economic strain on households and businesses, on top of everything else they’re facing at the moment. Reducing emissions has to be economically sustainable, otherwise society won’t tolerate the costs.”

Viv says she will lead a realistic plan, focusing energy on the areas where the greatest gains can be made towards achieving the national goal.

“While we need to provide alternatives to car use – particularly by investing earlier in the rapid transit network as I have proposed – we’ve got to be realistic about how much it can achieve, and we’ve got to get the balance right,” she says.

“The reality is that the great majority of the travel in Auckland is done in cars and trucks, and that’s expected to remain the case well into the future. De-carbonisation of the vehicle fleet – through low-emissions fuels and supporting the uptake of EVs – is therefore where we can achieve the most bang for buck, and where I’ll be calling for most of our resources to go.”

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