Police have paused development of a 10-year plan to decarbonise their fleet after ordering 2000 new fossil fuel cruisers, even as the Government ramps up efforts to electrify its vehicles, Marc Daalder reports
The New Zealand Police defended a decision to purchase 2000 new fossil fuel cars just a week before the Government committed to carbon neutrality by pointing to a 10-year roadmap to reducing fleet emissions.
Now, it turns out that roadmap wasn't complete at the time police used it to excuse the carbon-heavy purchase in December 2020, and progress on the plan has since stalled.
Police told the No Right Turn website that "development on the fleet strategy has been paused", in favour of work on an agency-wide sustainability strategy.
However, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster implied in a statement on the purchase of 2000 Škoda cruisers late last year that the strategy was already finished and in place.
"While incredibly promising, electric and hybrid technology are not yet a viable option for our patrol vehicles. However, we are committed to reducing our carbon emissions and have outlined a 10-year plan to an emissions-free fleet," he said.
"Police is in the process of developing a 10-year-fleet strategy (2020-2030), which will outline a roadmap to reducing CO2 emissions and improve sustainability across the police fleet over the next decade," Ruth Currie, the deputy chief executive of corporate operations, said in a letter to the site.
"During this drafting process, it has become apparent that there is a need for the organisation to first determine its overall sustainability aspirations and consider an agency-wide sustainability plan, before a fleet strategy can be developed."
The police fleet of 3405 vehicles is one of the dirtiest in government. It makes up 23 percent of all public sector vehicles and emits an average of 192 grams of CO2 per kilometre travelled - nearly a quarter above average for government-owned vehicles. The only agency with a sizeable fleet (100 or more vehicles) that is dirtier is Fire and Emergency.
Erica Finnie, the executive director of 350 Aotearoa, called the move by police to pause its decarbonisation plan "really disappointing".
"The fact that New Zealand Police is stalling on plans to develop this strategy reflects a failure from the Government to guide and to fund our state sector's response to the decarbonisation challenge," she said.
When contacted for comment, a police spokesperson said only that the department "remains committed to reducing emissions across the organisation as part of a holistic sustainability plan".
Finnie said the Government wasn't taking the task of decarbonising the public sector seriously.
The $200 million fund to help schools and hospitals replace fossil fuel boilers with electric options and to help government departments electrify vehicles has had little impact. Newsroom revealed last year that two-fifths of the fund had been spent to reduce just 26,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year - out of 80 million New Zealand releases in any given year.
"We've got about 1150 schools in Aotearoa using fossil fuels. The Government has currently funded 36 [to decarbonise]," Finnie said.
Over the weekend, the Government announced it would top up the fund by just under $20 million in the upcoming Budget.
"Seeing an increase to the State Sector Decarbonisation Fund of just $19.5 million is entirely inadequate to decarbonise our communities at the pace and scale that's necessary to limit climate change impacts. 350 Aotearoa is working in a coalition with a bunch of other climate, public health and education organisations calling for the Government to increase the budget around the state sector," Finnie said.
Last week, Climate Change Minister James Shaw said $13.1m from the fund would be put towards new electric vehicle infrastructure and purchasing 422 EVs for government agencies. This would more than triple the number of EVs currently owned by the Government - just 191 of nearly 15,000 government vehicles were electric at the end of last year.
.jpg?w=600)
