In ‘Plane Sight’ Part 1: Decarbonising Aotearoa’s Domestic Aviation
Never before has the world seen massive movements of people from city to city and one country to the next. While this has contributed to the world becoming a global village, it is no secret that carbon emissions are at horrific levels. One of the best ways to reduce emissions is to focus on transportation. Transport is cheaper, easier, and faster to decarbonise than many other CO2 sources (All Aboard). EECA reported that 44% of New Zealand's energy related emissions come from transport. So one can only imagine the impact decarbonizing that sector can have on climate resilience.
Auckland Council has a goal of reducing transport emissions by 64% by 2030. Adopted in 2022, the Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway (TERP) chalked out that transport emissions need to fall by 64%. One of the ways in which they intend to do that is by focusing on domestic aviation (currently international aviation sits outside climate change targets). While the TERP has specified this, Auckland Council’s action items are not as detailed or comprehensive. So, is it possible to see a significant reduction in flying emissions within six years?
More and more people are flying frequently for trips, weekend trips, concerts, sporting events, and business meetings. From 2009 to 2019, Auckland Airport saw domestic passengers increase by an average of 5% every year. And more growth is planned. Auckland airport aims to double the number of passengers by 2040.At a time when we need to reduce emissions rapidly, these numbers are not comforting. Not to mention, that aircraft fuel efficiency has only improved by 1.3% each year.
Additionally, the airlines constantly advertise and endorse hypermobile lifestyles. There are reward schemes that encourage further flying. Even looking up a Metservice weather forecast is likely to result in an offer of a trip to Queenstown, Sydney or Bali.
Among all this and increasing travel, these are some of the things that we can still do.
Frequent flyers can make a conscious decision to fly less. Just doing this alone can have a positive impact.
As more businesses include a climate target and sustainability initiatives, they can drastically reduce business flying. With multiple video-conferencing software, this is also possible.
Regional transport is imperative to connect people to places.
Unlike other countries, Aotearoa lacks a highly developed network of trains and good quality intercity buses. It is no wonder then that Aotearoa is the fourth highest for domestic aviation emissions in the world per capita. This is more than Germany, UK, Finland, and Sweden. Imagine leaving Waitematā Station (Britomart) after work on Friday on a fast electric train heading to Mt Maunganui for a summer weekend on the beach. Or taking your bike to Rotorua on the train for a biking holiday. Or heading to Wellington for a work conference on a comfortable night train.
It is a great starting point that the Auckland Council wishes to halve domestic aviation emissions in six years - we do urge a reduction of 64%. An effective solution cannot ignore the problem of international aviation emissions. There is also a tendency that frequent flyers will simply switch their travel from domestic to international. The solution will need to look more fundamentally at systemic problems. This includes tourism planning that ignores the impact of aviation, unregulated advertising for climate-damaging activities, and the lack of focus on restoring and growing our land-based domestic public transport networks.