9. Question No. 9—TransportHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green) to the Minister of TransportQuestion No. 9—Transport9. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green) to the Minister of Transport: Is his top priority in the Transport portfolio reducing carbon emissions; if so what steps is he taking to achieve this?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): It is one of my top priorities. Given transport has been one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand the need to take action is very very strong. So far this Government has taken a number of steps including continuing the work of the last term and investing record amounts into walking cycling rail and public transport rolling out our clean-car package to drive down emissions from the light vehicle fleet taking a holistic view of reducing transport emissions through Hīkina te Kohupara setting a target of councils only purchasing zero-emissions public transport buses from 2025 and decarbonising the entire public bus fleet by 2035. I look forward to confirming what other steps the Government will take to reduce carbon emissions in transport as part of the Emissions Reduction Plan a little later this year.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Can he confirm that emissions from the private vehicle fleet have grown faster than the dairy and manufacturing sector over the last five years and are now over 10 percent of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: Yes I can confirm those figures. There is a particularly challenging issue within the transport sector where the growth in transport emissions including from the light fleet has been very significant. The overall increase since 1990 for example has been 90 percent—the steepest increase of any sector. This speaks for the need for us to take strong and urgent action to reduce that emissions profile and that's what the Government's programme is focusing on.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Would it be possible under urgent climate time frames to reduce emissions from the vehicles we are importing without policies like the Clean Car Standard and Clean Car Discount which set fuel economy standards and make low-emissions vehicles financially more attractive than high-emissions vehicles?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: No I do not believe that that would be possible. New Zealand's performance in this area has not been strong in recent years and in fact some makes imported into New Zealand have increased their emissions profile in recent years. Virtually every country in the OECD with the exception of New Zealand Australia and Russia has a clean-car standard - type of policy that incentivises car importers to bring cleaner vehicles into the fleet. The Clean Car Discount complements that policy by incentivising New Zealanders into cleaner vehicles. Not only is it the case that without those policies we would struggle to improve our fleet; the risk is that if we didn't have those policies we would in fact become the dumping ground for the world's dirtiest vehicles as other countries increase their level of ambition.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Can he confirm that the Ministry of Transport's green paper on reducing transport emissions states To reduce and avoid transport emissions central and local government have to reconsider planned investments in major urban highway and road expansion projects"?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: It is very clear that if we want to transition to a decarbonised transport system we are going to have to change the kinds of investments that we make across the system. New Zealand's pattern of investment over about 70 years has been disproportionately focused on the roading sector to the exclusion of good public transport and low-carbon options. You can see for example in some of the recent decisions that we've made we have been investing in rail and public transport and good quality walking and cycling options to complement the roading options that New Zealanders already have. It's important that we give New Zealanders real transport choices to move around our growing cities and our regions.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Can New Zealand afford to spend many billions on transport infrastructure that won't reduce emissions over the next 10 years like the majority of the motorways that make up the majority of spending in the New Zealand Upgrade Programme?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: As I previously commented we do need to invest in infrastructure that supports a decarbonised transport sector. The Government has made a series of investments in recent years which are about rebalancing the overall spend that Government makes in the transport sector and I'm confident that the balance is good but we will continue to make investments in the infrastructure that will support decarbonisation. I note for example the record $1.3 billion of investment the Government made in the Budget this year towards revitalising New Zealand's rail sector to make sure that we move more freight around our country in a carbon-friendly way.Hon Julie Anne Genter: Has he seen research that cycling including e-bikes is 10 times more important than electric cars for reaching net zero cities and will he provide financial incentives for people to buy e-bikes and cargo bikes to replace their car trips?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: There is absolutely no doubt that e-bikes are a very very important part of supporting people to have better access within our cities and reducing our carbon emissions. The demand in New Zealand for e-bikes is very very high so there's good work happening there already. What's really important is that we provide the safe infrastructure so that people who do take up e-bike options are able to move around cities and towns confidently. That's why for example in the Auckland Transport Alignment Project package earlier this year there's a $1.1 billion investment over 10 years in safe walking and cycling infrastructure. The Government hasn't made any decisions at this point about financial assistance for e-bikes but we continue to consider a range of policies as part of our work on the Emissions Reduction Plan."