Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7.27
Auckland quality of life. Auckland and the surrounding areas offer a fabulous quality of life -
the great challenge is to radically reduce the environmental impacts.
through the current metropolitan transport strategy and spatial plan. However, the imple-
mentation difficulties will be large for all pathways that reduce emissions significantly. For
significant reductions in transport CO2 emissions, there needs to be a significant governmental
effort, affecting change at multiple levels, along the lines of the MLP understanding of
landscape, regime and niche innovation. Almost all governmental strategies underestimate this
complexity.
What is resolutely clear is the need to break the business-as-usual projected trends. Auckland
has a very high baseline in transport CO2 emissions as a starting point, with continued high
projected growth.The weak strategic direction at the national level does not help the efforts
in Auckland. New Zealand has only 'partially' responded to climate change at the national
level (relative, for example, to the more progressive approaches taken in the UK and London,
where an 80 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions on 1990 levels has been adopted - Climate
Change Act, 2008). There is an opportunity for cities to lead the way in developing carbon
efficient travel and less carbon intensive lifestyles, particularly in view of the recent difficulties
in finding a consensus for change at the international level. Cities can certainly push a more
radical agenda than seems possible at the international level. But, in many contexts, we are
again confronted by issues relating to implementation and the scale of required change. The
latter is universally underestimated.
There are also likely to be large economic and social equity dimensions in the policy
trajectories chosen, as low carbon transport futures are likely to have large differential impacts
spatially. Environmental equity considerations should be an essential part of the development
