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Informing the Government’s strategic approach to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from road freight in New Zealand.
Te whakaaweawe i tā te Kāwanatanga rautaki mō te whakaheke i ngā haukino e puta ana i te kawe rawa i runga whenua i Aotearoa.
Road freight is vital to New Zealand’s economy and is predicted to grow substantially over the next 30 years. We see reducing GHG emissions for these types of vehicles, especially long-haul road freight, as one of the most challenging areas of transport.
The Green freight project, which was initiated in April 2019, looks specifically at the role alternative green fuels — electricity, green hydrogen and biofuels — could play in reducing emissions from heavy vehicles carrying freight on New Zealand’s roads. The project is focused on heavy trucks involved in road freight because they account for nearly 25% of all GHG road transport emissions.
In September 2019 we invited public feedback on the ‘Green Freight Background Paper’ which explored the challenges and opportunities of transitioning road freight transport to alternative fuels. In May 2020 we released ‘Green Freight: 2020’, a strategic working paper which incorporated stakeholder feedback from the ‘Green Freight Background Paper’ and outlined options that the Government could implement over the next 15 years.
The working paper provides the Government with a range of options to increase the uptake of alternative green fuels in the road freight sector. We are not running a formal consultation process, but we are keen to hear your views on the options presented in this paper.
The options we identify in the report could be implemented over the next 15 years. This timeframe has been deliberately chosen to align with the Climate Change Commission’s advice to government on the first 3 carbon budgets 2022 to 2035.
The paper draws heavily on the insights gained from engaging with stakeholders in the freight industry, energy sectors, academia and other Government agencies on the ‘Green Freight Background Paper’. The options we present reflect our best assessment of what interventions could have the greatest impact on GHG emissions from road freight over the next 15 years.
Emissions budgets and the emissions reduction plan(external link)
We produced a paper exploring the challenges and opportunities of transitioning New Zealand’s heavy truck fleet to using alternative green fuels. The paper reflects thinking and research from domestic and international sources, and puts this in the context of the road freight industry in New Zealand.
If you have any feedback we would love to hear from you.