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• Objective 1: Resilient, low carbon transport

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• NZ Energy Strategy
• First Progress Report
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• NZEECS Annual Report 2008/09
• Appendix: NZEECS Annual Report
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The government has set a bold target that rising transport emissions are to be reversed and directed onto a long-term path of steady reductions. The government also made the in-principle decision that New Zealand is to be one of the first countries to widely deploy electric vehicles.

A range of actions targeting specific aspects of the transport system to reduce emissions are underway. These policies are designed to complement emissions pricing. They include managing demand for travel, shifting personal travel and freight to lower emissions modes, improving vehicle and fuel efficiency, developing and adopting new fuels and improving efficiencies. The Strategy also sets actions to maintain short-term fuel security.

Since the Strategy's publication:

• Petrol and diesel prices have risen dramatically, following international oil price rises, placing greater costs on people and businesses.
• The government has purchased the rail freight business with the intention to upgrade rail infrastructure to support more freight moving by rail.

This section covers chapter 7 of the Strategy and chapters 4 and 6.1 of the NZEECS.

2.1.1 Target and indicator

Target: Halve domestic per capita transport emissions by 2040, relative to 2007 levels.

The calendar year of 2007 is the baseline year for this target. In 2007, emissions were 14,877 kt CO₂-e⁶. Graph 3 shows the trend in greenhouse gas emissions.

Graph 3: New Zealand domestic transport emissions (CO2 equivalent) per capita 1990-2007⁷

→ Full size version of Graph 3 [9 kB JPG]

2.1.2 Activity

Transport highlights from the first eight months:

Updating the New Zealand Transport Strategy and creating a Government Policy Statement: By 30 June 2008 an update of the New Zealand Transport Strategy (NZTS 2008) and a government policy statement (GPS) were nearly ready for release. The NZTS 2008 and GPS were released on 5 August 2008.

• The NZTS 2008 incorporates the Energy Strategy targets and sets the direction for the transport sector up to 2040 (through setting a vision and targets for transport, such as halving transport sector carbon dioxide emissions by 2040). It outlines the challenges facing the transport sector and maps out pathways to achieve the vision and targets.
• The GPS ensures that funding and planning for land transport contribute to the strategic objectives set out in the NZTS 2008. The GPS is to be reissued every three years by the Minister of Transport to set out the government's high level priorities and funding allocation for land transport for the following 10 years.

Progress towards electric vehicles:

• The Vehicle Energy and Renewables Group (VERG) has been established to advise the government on the deployment of renewable energy in the transport sector. The group's members are transport and energy sector experts.
• VERG has begun to assess the business model of a private company Project Better Place (a Silicon Valley company) that proposes to introduce infrastructure for electric vehicles into New Zealand.
• The Ministry of Transport has scoped an electric vehicle work programme, which intends to identify, delegate and prioritise the steps required for New Zealand to become a world leader in the deployment of electric vehicles. The Ministry of Transport leads the work programme and will coordinate work by other government agencies on electric vehicles and other low carbon fuels and technologies.
• International vehicle manufacturers have been approached and encouraged to regard New Zealand as an early market, to determine the state of technology development and to gauge estimates of timescales for mass produced export products. Officials visited Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota in Japan in March 2008. All these companies are developing plug in/hybrid or full electric vehicles.
• The Electricity Commission has undertaken an analysis of potential additional demand for electricity from electric vehicles and modelled the impacts on the electricity system.⁸

Sea Change – Transforming Coastal Shipping: New Zealand's domestic sea freight strategy was launched in May 2008 to increase the share of inter-regional freight carried by sea from 15% to 20% by 2020 and to 30% by 2030. The Seafreight Development Unit was established to revive the local sea freight industry through provision of funding, better information, more trained workers into the domestic sea freight industry and improved supply chain logistics. $36 million has been earmarked for coastal shipping over the next four years. This is one of several sector and modal strategies to enable each mode to fully contribute to New Zealand's transport system.

Biofuel Bill: Legislation to introduce a mandatory biofuel sales obligation was introduced to Parliament in October 2007 and by 30 June 2008 had been reported back from Select Committee. The Bill sets out requirements for petrol and diesel suppliers to also supply biofuels as a small but increasing percentage of their total sales from 1 October 2008. The mandatory biofuels obligation is a tool to firmly establish a market for sustainable biofuels in New Zealand.

The Vehicle Fuel Economy Labelling scheme was launched by EECA with associated regulations.⁹ This requires fuel consumption information to be provided at point of sale for both new and second-hand cars, enabling purchasers to make more informed choices. From 7 April 2008, every car that is sold (second-hand or new) must display a label both on the vehicle and with electronic sales advertisements such as on TradeMe. Purchasers can also access fuel efficiency information via the fuelsaver.govt.nz and rightcar.govt.nz websites. Since Land Transport New Zealand launched the rightcar.govt.nz website in November 2007, the site has recorded a steady increase in traffic, clocking up 2.9 million hits in the month of June 2008.

Short-term oil supplies: An Oil Emergency Response Strategy has been updated to ensure that the effects of an oil supply disruption on New Zealand are minimised and New Zealand can meet its obligations as a member of the International Energy Agency (IEA). New Zealand met its international obligation to have access to least 90 days of oil supplies (including stocks held off-shore for release onto the global market in the event of an IEA emergency) throughout the 2007/08 year. New Zealand held 98 days of oil stocks as of 1 June 2008.

Other progress as of 30 June 2008 includes:

• The Ministry of Transport is trialling higher heavy vehicle weight limits (allowing trucks to carry heavier loads) to estimate the costs and benefits. The results will feed into a review of heavy vehicle weight limits.
• The Public Transport Management Bill is under consideration by a select committee. Among other things, the Bill aims to clarify and extend the functions and powers of regional councils with respect to public transport planning, and assist regions to develop integrated, responsive and sustainable transport systems.
• The Ministry of Transport is undertaking trials to test different fuel efficiency training programmes targeted at drivers in the heavy and light commercial vehicle fleets. The trials will lead to recommendations for a fleet commitment training package appropriate to New Zealand drivers.
• Land Transport New Zealand has continued to promote travel demand management with local councils, government agencies, businesses and schools by providing resources to support travel planning. These resources include guidelines, templates and the national online workplace travel survey.

The full set of actions is in Appendix 1.

2.1.3 Supplementary targets and indicators

The transport targets below help to provide an indication of change to specific aspects of New Zealand's transport system.

• To have an average emissions performance of 170g/km of CO₂ (approximately 7 litres/100km) for light vehicles entering the fleet by 2015.¹⁰
• In 2007: the light petrol vehicles¹¹ entering the New Zealand fleet averaged 206g/km.
• Cut kilometres travelled by single occupancy vehicles in major urban areas on weekdays by 10% per capita by 2015 relative to 2007.¹²
• The Ministry of Transport Ongoing Household Travel Survey recorded vehicles with single occupants in major urban areas on weekdays travelled on average 3,100km per annum (averaged over the four years 2003-07).
• Increase overall public transport mode share to 7% of all passenger trips.
• In the year 2006/07 (July to June): boardings on public transport were 1.8% of all household trips.¹³
• Achieve regional public transport patronage targets for major urban areas.¹⁴

For the 2007/8 year:

• In Auckland patronage levels reached 54,405,000 passenger trips, or 39 boardings per person, an increase of 0.7% on 2006/07. (Target: to increase public transport patronage to 60 boardings per person per year by 2016.) The number of passenger trips rose by 4.36% in the year; however, there was a similar percentage increase in population.
• In Wellington patronage levels reached 17,554,397 at peak times, an increase of 0.2% on 2006/07. (Target: to increase public transport use for journeys to work by 21% by 2016.). Total passenger trips in the year were 34,693,533, an increase of 1.7% over the previous year.
• In Christchurch patronage levels reached 16,648,889 passenger trips, an increase of 5.91% on 2006/07. (Target: to increase the proportion of trips by public transport to 6% by 2011.)
• In Dunedin, patronage levels on Otago Regional Council-contracted services for the first six months of 2008 compared to the first six months of 2007 (latest figures available) rose by 43% to 906,641 passenger boardings. (Target: 4.5% of all trips in the region to be made by public transport by 2014).
• To have plans in place to cut workplace travel by core public service departments by 15 percent by 2010.¹⁵
• Data for a baseline 2007/08 year is due to be reported in March 2009.