Section Seven: Additional supporting information
7.2 Climate action investment options
7.2 Climate action investment options
Purpose
Provide options for investment to accelerate Auckland Council’s response to climate change.
Context – Rationale for change
Makaurau / Auckland is in a climate emergency. We have less than a decade to make major changes to
avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Auckland Council is committed to taking action to combat climate
change.
Our region is already experiencing the effects of a changing climate. Over the last decade, Auckland felt the
impacts of heavy rain events, storm surges and coastal inundation, extreme heat events, and droughts. These
climate impacts are expected to increase in frequency and severity.
In June 2019, Auckland Council unanimously declared a climate emergency, recognising our region’s role in
limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In response to this declaration, two core goals were established for our region through Te T
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Auckland’s Climate Plan to:
reduce regional greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by
2050
prepare for climate change impacts by ensuring we consider the implications of our current emissions
pathway in our planning.
These goals cannot be achieved by any one individual or organisation. They require bold and ambitious action
by individuals, communities, businesses, mana whenua and government. The broad cross-sectoral and region-
wide actions required to reach the goals
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Plan.
We are not starting from scratch – but there is still more to do
Auckland Council is already making some contribution to reaching these goals. For example, we have already
committed over $10 billion of investment into improving public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure
through our Regional Land Transport Plan 2018-2028. This wil contribute to reducing emissions from land
transport. We have also invested over $300 million in direct climate response actions through Watercare and
have considerable ongoing investment into making our water supply and wastewater infrastructure more
resilient to extreme weather events.
Despite this significant investment, we know that a “business as usual” approach will not achieve our climate
goals. We also know Council’s ability to directly reduce regional emissions through our own actions is limited.
For example, in the transport sector Auckland Transport recently calculated the emissions savings al planned
and likely transport interventions that do not require new legislation or central government leadership could
achieve. This included transitioning to a low-emissions bus fleet, completing scheduled bus, cycle and rail
projects, creating low-emissions vehicle zones and education about walking and cycling. These interventions
would reduce regional emissions by less than 5 per cent by 2030.
Status quo – Current levels of investment
Under the status quo, Auckland Council is making a relatively limited investment into some key activities that
are relevant to achieving our climate goals.
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Section 7: Additional supporting information
7.2 Climate action investment options
Key outcome areas include:
Zero emissions bus fleet – Under current budgets Auckland Transport will need to add more diesel
buses to their fleet up until 2025. Diesel buses will then slowly be replaced by clean electric and
hydrogen buses – making 26 per cent of the fleet zero emissions by 2030 and delivering a fully zero
emissions bus fleet by 2040. This has a cost of $16 mil ion up to 2030 (additional to the normal running
costs of the bus fleet).
Coastal change – Over the next eight years we will invest around $200,000 per year into developing
coastal management plans, a crucial tool to help us manage the impacts of coastal inundation and
storm surges on our 1,800 kms of coastline. Current investment levels wil enable us to develop eight of
15 required coastal plans by 2028. While we have a budget to renew existing coastal assets, there wil
be no new funding to respond to coastal erosion.
Zero Waste Auckland – We have made a significant investment into developing our network of 12
Community Recycling Centres, but our provision of operational funding to keep these centres running
will stop in 2023.
Community action – Household emissions, (including transport) are growing and make up 71 per cent of
New Zealand’s consumption emissions. Our programmes to support Aucklanders to reduce their
emissions reach only 30,000 or two per cent of Aucklanders per year.
Growing our ngahere (forests) – Despite a number of established planting programmes in our regional
and local parks, including the Mayor’s 1.5 Million Trees initiative, we know that canopy cover is only
eight or nine per cent in some southern local boards and our forests are shrinking in some parts of
Auckland.
There are also activities Auckland Council undertakes that are adding to our organisational and regional
greenhouse gas emissions and are leaving us more exposed to the impacts of climate change.
In summary, a “business as usual” approach will not enable Auckland Council to play our part in reducing
regional emissions. Our model ing shows that under the business as usual scenario, without additional action to
reduce emissions across all sectors, regional emissions will increase by 19 per cent by 2050.
Significantly more investment is also required to support our natural environment, communities and
infrastructure to be resilient to the impacts of climate change.
We have considered two main options to accelerate Auckland Council’s response to climate change which are
outlined below. The preferred option which we are consulting on, is Option One – Moderately accelerate
Auckland Council’s climate action. The financial impacts and potential climate outcomes from both options are
discussed in more detail below.
Option One – Moderately accelerate Auckland Council’s climate action
Option One would provide $152 million of additional financial investment to accelerate Council’s contribution to
our regional climate goals. This would be funded through general rates, as part of the overall increase in
investment that we are proposing. It equates to approximately 0.8 per cent of the general rates increase. Key
outcomes of programmes included in Option One are summarised in Attachment A.
Reducing emissions
If Option One is funded, this will al ow council to moderately accelerate our climate action work programme.
Various enabling programmes would be introduced, such as requiring climate compatibility assessment for al
new Council developments and infrastructure to promote low carbon development. Council would establish a
cross-sectoral leadership group and regional partnerships
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Climate Plan and partner with businesses and central government to identify solutions to our biggest emissions
chal enges.
Council would also act to directly reduce emissions in some key areas. For example, by investing $34 million
into our bus fleet, we could ensure that no more diesel buses are added to our fleet from 2021. We would also
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7.2 Climate action investment options
work with central government to provide over 750 clean electric and hydrogen buses by 2030, making 50 per
cent of the bus fleet zero emissions. This will save 170,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent over ten years.
We would invest over $10 million into the operational costs of expanding our resource recovery network. This
would ensure that we can unlock $28 mil ion of central government funding which we expect to receive from the
waste levy when this is increased. With this funding we could expand our Zero Waste Auckland programme,
establishing nine more community recycling centres, two resource recovery parks and a deconstruction hub to
divert over 140,000 tonnes of waste a year from landfil by 2030.
Investing $14 million into growing our urban and rural forests would mean we can plant around 11,000 more
street-trees. Some trees would be planted in all local boards, with the highest priority given to local boards that
currently have the lowest canopy cover. We would also partner with the community to establish a nursery and
produce 200,000 more native seedlings a year to support community and marae planting.
A key area of feedback we received on Te Taruke-a-Tawhiri: Auckland's Climate Plan was that Aucklanders
want the council to support them to take action to prevent climate change. By investing $12 mil ion into
supporting community climate action through this option we could provide 45,000 Aucklanders per year on
average with advice and tools that enable them to make changes to the way they live. This would reduce
household emissions and build resilience to climate impacts.
Council would also be able to support tactical interventions, delivered in consultation with local businesses and
residents, to progress a zero emissions area in the Queen Street valley and some projects to support people
friendly streets in other areas.
Final y, if approved, Option One would enable us to invest $10 million into reducing emissions from our council
offices, stadiums and art gal ery, making them more energy efficient and installing renewables on some
buildings. 200 hectares of native forest would also be planted in our regional parks to offset our organisational
emissions.
The direct emissions reduction from this option is expected to be around 540,000 to 870,000 tonnes of CO2
equivalent over ten years for the six programmes where we can quantify the emissions reduction. This does not
include the emissions reductions from some enabling actions, such as the regional partnerships programme or
climate compatibility assessments for new developments. These emissions reductions are expected to be more
significant but also have more uncertainty so cannot be quantified.
Adapting to change and increasing resilience to climate impacts
Option One would allow a limited investment into planning for adaptation and supporting community resilience.
Under this option we would invest $14
change, engaging 20 marae and their associated kura in a climate resilience programme. We would also
establish a
leadership group and support delivery of
-led projects to increase resilience to
climate change. These would focus on key areas of significance such as indigenous food sovereignty and
restoring te mauri o te wai.
Council would also be able to increase our planning for how to respond to coastal change, delivering 15 coastal
management plans for all 1,800 kilometres of our coastline by 2026 and a Coastal Asset Management Plan. Our
ability to support Aucklanders to respond to natural hazards that wil be worsened by climate change, such as
landslides and cliff erosion, would also be enhanced.
This option would al ow us to provide some targeted support to communities in need to access affordable, low
carbon food and reduce their energy usage through investing $5 mil ion over ten years. This includes some
targeted support and engagement with Pasifika communities. Research and engagement to understand how
climate change wil impact on Aucklanders with disabilities and what support they might need in future would
also be delivered.
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7.2 Climate action investment options
Option Two – More significantly accelerate Auckland Council’s climate
action
If funded, Option Two would support all the actions included in Option One and al ow council to more
significantly accelerate our climate action work programme in some areas. If this alternative larger package
were to be funded using additional rates, then it would add 0.9 per cent to the average general rates increase
for 2021/2022. Another way to fund the larger package would be through reprioritising $170 mil ion of other
planned expenditure and accepting any impact that might have on other council services.
Reducing emissions
By scaling up some of the programmes included in Option One we would significantly increase our ability to
directly reduce emissions. For example, we would invest $110 million to replace over 1,500 diesel buses in our
fleet with clean electric and hydrogen buses, achieving a 100 per cent zero-emissions bus fleet by 2030.
This would reduce emissions from the bus fleet by 400,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, more than twice as much
as Option One.
Option Two would also amplify our efforts to encourage community climate action and reduce household
consumption emissions. If funded, we could invest $20 mil ion to reach 94,000 Aucklanders on average per year
with advice and tools and develop more extensive community networks to respond to climate change.
The number of street trees we can plant would also be significantly increased, we could invest $27 mil ion into
growing our rural and urban forests – meaning we can plant 29,000 street trees - 18,000 more than in Option
One.
In addition to our investment in Option One into making our offices and stadiums more energy efficient, in
Option Two we would invest $19 mil ion into a Sustainable Asset Standard for our community facilities, such as
libraries and community centres. This would provide higher quality public venues for Aucklanders to use and
ensure that the large new community facilities we build do not add to our carbon footprint. 1
The direct emissions reduction from Option Two are expected to be around 920,000 to 1,350,000 tonnes of
CO2 equivalent over ten years, so roughly twice as much as Option One. As in Option One this does not include
the emissions reductions from some enabling actions, such as the climate partnerships programme, which are
more significant but also have more uncertainty so cannot be meaningful y quantified.
Adapting to climate change impacts and building resilience
This option would also enable the council to do more to adapt to climate impacts. We would increase our ability
to protect our coastal assets, investing $26 mil ion into protecting four of the council’s 85 closed coastal landfil s
from failure due to impacts of climate change such as sea level rise and extreme weather events. This
programme is intended to be a pilot that would potential y enable partnerships with central government in future
to protect more of our closed landfil s in the coastal or marine area.
We would also invest $19 million into responding to coastal erosion, capturing coastal hazard data on property
records in the first years of the 10-year budget and then carrying out some physical works to manage coastal
erosion hot spots from 2026 once our coastal management plans are complete.
Our ability to increase community resilience would also be amplified through investing $6 mil ion more, enabling
us to engage more marae
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climate change resilience programme.
1 Introducing a Sustainable Asset Standard wil also require the Council to adopt a Sustainable Assets Standard Policy. This wil be
considered by Council’s Governing Body if funding for this programme is confirmed through the ten-year budget process.
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7.2 Climate action investment options
Comparison of options against climate outcomes
Overal , both options enhance Auckland Council’s ability to respond to climate change, but Option Two would
double our ability to directly reduce emissions in the short-term.
It would also significantly increase our chances of successful y reducing regional emissions in future, through
encouraging more extensive understanding and support across Auckland for future change.
Option Two would also enable us to begin physical works to protect critical coastal assets, such as our closed
landfil s, and respond to the impacts of coastal erosion on public assets in the coastal area.
However, as outlined above, Option Two would either require further rates increases or reprioritising $170
million of planned expenditure. If we chose to fund this option through increasing rates then the proposed 5 per
cent average general rates increase for 2021/2022 would need to be around 5.9 per cent in order to support this
alternative option.
Neither option will ful y achieve the regional
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are beyond the scope of any one organisation to deliver alone and require action and collaboration across all
sectors.
Under both options, our ability to directly reduce Auckland’s regional emissions remains limited. More work is
urgently needed, both by central government and Auckland Council, to reduce transport emissions and support
a more compact, low carbon urban form.
Significant investments wil also be required to adapt to climate impacts and make infrastructure across
Auckland more resilient to climate change. Because the scale of investment required is so large, this wil require
support from central government through national funding mechanisms.
Auckland’s businesses and communities, who are also being impacted by the negative effects of COVID-19, will
need significantly more support from the council and central government to become resilient to the impacts of
climate change.
Both proposed options for accelerating climate action will al ow Auckland Council to carry out pilots and test
solutions to our major emissions and adaptation chal enges. This wil create potential for us to partner with
central government and other sectors to deliver larger programmes of work in future years.
We are consulting on Option One – a $150 million investment to moderately accelerate our climate change
response. This option al ows some moderate acceleration of our climate action and we consider it is affordable
within the proposed overal average general rates increase of 5 per cent in 2021/2022 and 3.5 per cent in
following years.
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