New Zealand voters are divided on climate policy along party lines, with the majority on one side of the political spectrum calling for urgent action while at the other end most recommend caution.
The drop in traffic during COVID-19 lockdowns reduced global emissions. If we keep encouraging cycling and working from home beyond the pandemic, our climate goals may become more achievable.
Bullet trains are back on the agenda. But a new analysis shows that rather than helping cut emissions, such a project would drive them up for at least 24 years.
New research reveals which sectors of the global economy fuelled the emissions decline during COVID-19. We have a narrow window of time to make the change permanent.
Madrid’s skyline on a clear night.
EPA-EFE/FERNANDO VILLAR
The continued upward trend in our second-biggest source of emissions is a result of government inaction on a transport mix dominated by trucks and cars and a lack of fuel-efficiency standards.
Passengers disembark high speed trains at London’s St. Pancras International station in London, UK.
EPA/Andy Rain
Electric trains use seven times less carbon dioxide than cars. With careful planning, railways could drastically cut emissions from a sector that now accounts for a quarter of the carbon in our air.
Demonstrations against freeway construction in Melbourne included a street barricade erected in protest at the F19 extension of the Eastern Freeway.
Barricade! – the resident fight against the F19
Public protests eventually forced the scrapping of some proposed freeways in 1973. Today, we have another round of projects and people are protesting again, with good reason. Government should listen.
The car we choose and the energy system we support are linked.
Marcos_Silva/Shutterstock
Our power plants may be dirty now. But unlike combustion vehicles, electric cars give us the chance to finally free ourselves from high-carbon travel.
Planes can create clouds of tiny ice crystals, called contrails, and some studies suggest they could have an a significant effect on climate.
from www.shutterstock.com
Shaun Hendy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Globally, emissions from air travel account for only about 3% of the warming human activities are causing, but aviation affects our climate in a number of ways.
Traffic congestion on the M5 motorway in Sydney. Government assumptions that Australian cars are becoming more fuel efficient are incorrect, research shows.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Surprise findings have revealed that Australia’s cars are getting less fuel efficient. This is bad news for the hip-pockets of motorists - and for the climate.
Australia and Russia could soon be the last remaining developed nations without fuel efficiency standards, with New Zealand proposing new rules and financial incentives to get more people driving cleaner cars.
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New Zealand has proposed new fuel standards, along with a consumer rebates for cleaner cars – paid for by higher costs for high-polluting cars – to cut its rising transport emissions.