International air travel and emissions
I’ve just come back from a holiday in South Africa, and it occurs to me that flying there and back blows my other transport-related emissions for the year out of the water. My partner and I use around 1,000 litres of petrol a year between us, travelling 10,000 km or so.…
22 Comments Climate change and New Zealand cities
Environmentalists sometimes have an uneasy relationship with cities. Because they concentrate a lot of people and economic activity in relatively small places, they also concentrate a lot of negative environmental effects. All that concrete, all that energy being consumed, the kilometres of malls and highways and subdivisions!…
Dr Sean Simpson from Lanzatech
On 8th October, Dr Sean Simpson from Lanzatech will be speaking at the University of Auckland, on the subject of “Climate-friendly fuel: A challenge of scale and time”. This is part of the Energy Centre’s Energy Matters lecture series.
Sean is a great speaker – I saw him give a keynote address at the Energy Conference back in March – so I’d strongly recommend coming along if you’re interested in these issues, or even just if you’re into science or commercialising new technologies.…
Anyone remember global warming?
As an economist, I get a bit annoyed about inefficient spending (which the Roads of National Significance are), and frustrated at the lack of economic thinking that goes into party policies (all political parties come out badly here – e.g. Labour’s Working For Families seriously messed up marginal tax rates and incentives to work more for mid-income earners).…
Electric vehicles (part 3)
So, electric vehicles (EVs) were looking pretty good in part 2. They’re much more energy efficient than regular cars, at least on a “tank-to-wheels” basis. Today, I’ll talk about their greenhouse gas emissions, starting with a quote from my thesis:
Advanced vehicles could make a sizeable contribution to emissions reduction in New Zealand.…
World Energy Outlook 2013
Each year, the International Energy Agency puts out a lengthy report called the World Energy Outlook. New Zealand is a member of the IEA, and we pay membership fees to them in exchange for policy advice and so on (although we don’t seem to listen to it).…
Sustainable transport
Yesterday I was invited to speak on Sustainable Transport, as part of the “Friday forum” which is run by the Sustainability Society. My fellow speakers were David Warburton – CEO of Auckland Transport, and Julie-Anne Genter – transport consultant and (on currently polling) likely to be a Green Party MP after the upcoming election.…
e2 transport – cities leading from the front
For those slightly tired of endless analyses of the CBD Rail Tunnel’s business case, here’s a great video from the “e2 transport” series – which can often be seen on TVNZ7 at 7.30pm on Monday nights. It is interesting to note that on a lot of big picture issues – whether it be addressing climate change or changing transport patterns, it often seems to be city level governments that lead the way.…
Peak Oil, a boost to Auckland’s economy?
I’m posting a link to a video of right wing economist Jeff Rubin, a Canadian who has an excellent record of predicting economic trends and author of the book: Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller.
Here he is giving a speech about how he believes in many respects the economies and environments of first world nations could be enhanced by Peak Oil.…
Is New Zealand Falling Behind the US? Part 2
Earlier this week I did a post about how the US is moving forward in their thinking regarding the place of roads in the hierarchy of their cities and the greater realisation of the link between a car dominated city and lower liveability.…
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