If the Government applied the $500m a year Kiwis pay in ETS levies to moves to cut transport emissions, reductions are possible ahead of electric vehicles being the norm
For New Zealand to substantially reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, transport needs significant change.
Of course, there is some change happening, but it is nowhere near enough to meet the transport emission reduction goals we’re told are needed.
There is a lot of talk about getting people out of cars and using public transport, walking and cycling instead. These are essential solutions, but many people, for a wide range of reasons, will struggle to routinely use these alternatives.
Not only are there practical issues to overcome, but cultural challenges too. Kiwis say they support environmentalism, but they also highly value the mobility that the car brings and most will not give this up easily.
Many New Zealanders rely on access to low-cost, second-hand cars. Their work and family schedules or location means public transport is not feasible most of the time.
While the well-off can easily afford alternatives like e-bikes and have the time and resources to find other ways like working from home to reduce their emissions, many New Zealanders will struggle.
Therefore to meet our transport emission reduction goals, the AA believes much more money needs to go into helping the majority of our population to reduce their emissions.
It is disappointing that, despite years of highlighting this anomaly, money collected on fuel as part of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) still goes into the Government’s general consolidated fund. This means money collected from motorists can be spent on anything, potentially with no connection in any way to reducing transport emissions.
The AA is calling on the Government to change this in today's Budget.
Currently motorists pay about 10 cents a litre at the pump for the ETS levy. This equates to over $500 million a year. This is money that should be going directly into initiatives that will help motorists - who are the people paying this levy - to reduce their emissions.
Every bit of money is needed to have an impact on transport emissions across the whole population. And it fits with New Zealanders’ ingrained sense of fairness. AA member surveys show 85 percent of motorists want to do something about climate change and 75 percent think the emissions levy they are paying should be dedicated to climate change solutions.
It is clear electric vehicles will play a role. But unfortunately they will remain costly and supply will be constrained for many years, so a range of other solutions are needed urgently.
We need a well-thought-through strategy for our future fleet that considers how we incentivise people, as rapidly as possible, to ditch unsafe older vehicles and gas guzzlers for safer and more fuel-efficient options. And we need be careful about unwanted consequences like people deciding it’s more affordable to hold onto their old cars.
The AA also thinks we are missing a huge opportunity to use more biofuels to stabilise transport emissions in the short term. Modern biofuels, made from animal or wood waste, are attractive alternatives as ‘drop in’ fuels. They are a direct replacement for fossil fuels meaning people don’t have to buy a new vehicle and the infrastructure to store and transport them already exists. Finland, which has set ambitious targets for biofuels, has created supporting policy settings and invested heavily in bioenergy from wood waste. The Finns are on track to have 30 percent of their fossil fuels replaced by biofuel by 2030. Making use of this technology seems like a no-brainer for New Zealand too while we slowly replace our fleet with electric vehicles.
We also need to be acting more quickly on initiatives that reduce congestion. Every day people waste large amounts of fuel stuck in traffic. We need better network management as well as strong incentives that encourage and enable people to think more creatively about when they use the roads.
All these ideas could be moved along if the money from the ETS on fuel went towards helping to find solutions to transport emissions.
Undoubtedly reducing transport emissions is an enormous challenge, and we will only achieve it by enabling the vast majority of Kiwis to live lower carbon lives with minimal noticeable impact. Using the money people are already paying for their transport emissions via the ETS to find solutions to this problem is not only logical, but just.
