Emeritus Professor Ralph Sims

Climate change
Sustainability is more than just climate change; it is our whole effect on our environment.

Climate change is already happening:

We are now becoming more aware of what it means – more floods, droughts, damage to coastlines, transport delays, hotter days, fewer touches of frost, forest fires, and new diseases. So we will have to learn how to adapt – e.g. store fresh water and retreat away from the coasts. NZ has just had the warmest and wettest winter on record. Also, heat in Europe and China; floods in Pakistan; forest fires in US etc.
 
 
We will have to join the rest of the world and reduce the production of greenhouse gases to reach net zero emissions by 2050 - as outlined in the Zero Carbon Act. Most people accept climate change as a threat, but few have reduced their carbon footprints. Global lockdowns in 2020 saw a blip in the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, but once the lockdowns ended, emissions returned to the same growth rate.

New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions have largely stabilised but are not decreasing, and we are increasing further away from target reductions.

“The Emission Trading Scheme will solve it”........ BUT

  • The ETS has been in place for 14 years with little effect.
  • NZ emissions have not declined, and we remain one of the highest per capita in the world.
  • The ETS is being reviewed, including how to include agricultural emissions.
  • The carbon price has exceeded $80/t CO2-eq for the past few months and will double.

So currently we are paying around 22 c/litre on petrol and diesel as a “carbon levy” - but few people know. So is that any for reducing fuel consumption?

The costs of mitigation are often emphasised. But the many co-benefits are usually ignored. These include:

  • Improved air quality in cities avoiding 900
  • Deaths per year and hospitalisations.
  • Less time wasted in traffic congestion.
  • Better health from eating less animal protein.
  • Better health from active transport.
  • Better health from building insulation.
  • Less intensive farming systems reduce
  • Groundwater pollution and improve animal
  • Welfare.
  • Export market potential premiums for low-
  • Carbon products.
 
How to reduce our business and personal carbon footprints
 
  • Urban planning and housing densification
  • Building designs to reduce energy demand
  • Planting trees
  • Lower consumption – e.g. fashion
  • Reducing wastes – plastics, organics
  • Low-carbon heating of buildings
  • Phase out natural gas appliances
  • Expand renewable electricity uptake
  • Nuclear power!!!
  • Food choice
  • Transport options.
By its very nature, the fashion industry creates demand for new items and waste from discarded old things. Although it can be used to change behaviour, it is ultimately not sustainable.
 
TRANSPORT emits around 20% of total emissions and is rising.

It is challenging to reduce our love for big petrol/diesel cars. Each typically emits around 2-3 t CO2 per year. Moving people and freight from A to B. There are four distinct journey options to consider:

  • moving around the central city;
  • linking the suburbs;
  • inter-city connections;
  • international travel.

It is not sustainable to build an economy based on tourism, which requires large-scale travel for large numbers of passengers for pleasure to survive.

We are what we eat. Well, we reap what we eat.

Eating animal-based protein, pork, chicken, and fish are the most sustainable options. To feed the 8 Billion humans on the planet, more of us will have to eat less animal protein.