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Planes, trains and the climate crisis – why New Zealand shouldn’t be closing its railways | Robert McLachlan
While there are plans to expand airports, railways have been dismantled – so how will the country decarbonise domestic travel?
For a people represented by a unique flightless bird, Kiwis do a lot of flying. While globally, aviation emissions represented just under 3% of carbon dioxide emissions in 2019, for New Zealand the figure was 12%. New Zealand ranks sixth in per capita aviation emissions, at one tonne of carbon dioxide per person, about 10 times the world average. It ranks fourth for per capita emissions in domestic aviation – just ahead of Canada, even though Canada is 40 times the size of New Zealand.
Perhaps this is not surprising. New Zealand is far away from most population centres. It has a large tourist industry and a population with globally dispersed families – 27% of the population was born overseas, and an estimated one million Kiwis live overseas.
Robert McLachlan is a professor in applied mathematics at Massey University
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