Aucklnd Sustainability

Summer 2017

Auckland Sustainability
Quarterly
Quarterly
Chief Sustainability Office
Chief Sustainability Office

This Edition: From the Chief Sustainability Officer

Cities and Climate Ngā mihi o te tau hou – greetings for the new year.
• Making the Climate Great In New Zealand, the new year brings us longer days, warmer
Again
weather and a reminder that we’re truly lucky to call Auckland
• Low Carbon Auckland: Year home. 2017 also brings us a fresh start. It’s an opportunity for us
Two
to reflect on and learn from the past, refocusing our efforts with
• Deadline 2020: Next 4 Years
renewed resolve and ambition.
Pivotal
• Leaning Out: The Importance So let’s resolve this year to be even more ambitious in protecting
of Imports our climate.
• CSO Staffing & Hiring News
Over the past few years, we’ve been ramping up our efforts to combat
climate change and squeeze out a range of tangible benefits in doing
so. There’s been a flurry of local and international activity in this space
and it’s my belief that these few years are the tipping point into a new
era – with cities leading the charge. But why cities, how is Auckland
doing, and what’s required for our success?

In this Quarterly, we’ll explore exactly that, starting with the role of cities
and how we’re working with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group
to, let’s just say, “make the climate great again.”

We’ll then turn our attention to Auckland’s progress with a summary of

our second year Low Carbon report – and follow that with an overview
John Mauro of C40 and Arup’s hard-hitting research report, Deadline 2020. The
Chief Sustainability Officer gist: we’re tracking well but need acceleration and ambition to step it up
john.mauro@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz if we’re going to get the job done.
+64 9 980 5134
+64 21 221 6502 Finally, I reflect on time spent engaging with my counterparts in a
The Chief Sustainability Office Team dozen C40 cities in North America, Europe and Asia, demonstrating the
Alec Tang opportunities inherent in leaning out to new partners, importing new
Jasmine Burt
Lauren Simpson
ideas, and collaborating better in order to truly succeed.
Mike Harvey
Dr. Parin Rafiei Thompson I sincerely hope that 2017 will be wildly productive, successful and fun
Robert Perry for you. As always, please feel free to share your ideas of how we can
Dr. Sarah Anderson
work together to create a better, more sustainable Auckland.

Ngā mihi,
@SustainableAkl
Follow us on Twitter for the latest
sustainability news, trends and innovations
Making the Climate Great Again
Just days after the historic Paris Agreement came into
force, the results of the US election threw the global
climate deal into uncertainty. President Trump. Yes, that’s
a thing now. Most of the world’s nations, gathered then in
Morocco to advance the agreement, braced, absorbed and
focused on a path through the uncertainty.
But as this happened, cities across the globe didn’t just
stand together – they kept moving, even picking up the
pace. Cities are focused squarely on shaping and leading
the climate change agenda by delivering pragmatic local
solutions. As Mark Watts, the executive director of the de-
facto global cities powerhouse on climate action, C40
Cities Climate Leadership Group, said recently: “it is the
mayors of the world’s great cities, led by the 90 members
of C40, who are setting the pace and scale of action that is
needed to put the world on a climate safe pathway.”
Cities as Pragmatists, Delivering to our Citizens
Cities like Auckland are simultaneously at the doorstep of climate
impacts and the vanguard of innovative solutions. While nations
grind forward with policy development, cities often sprint,
developing and instituting policy and behaviour change
immediately. Think of the ferociously bold and successful
placemaking of New York’s Times Square or Medellin’s
Metrocable, the low carbon precincts of Sydney or Stockholm and
the growing circular economies of Amsterdam or Glasgow. Read
more in the piece in this Quarterly on “Leaning Out.” And also
take note of Deadline 2020 (also summarised in this Quarterly),
that maps out how cities across the globe can help limit global
temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.

New Zealanders simply don’t shy away from proudly

standing up on the international stage and acting with
conviction. And there’s no better time for acting with
conviction than now. As a newly minted C40 Cities
member, Auckland is better positioned, committed and
equipped than ever to play our part.

Auckland Embracing C40 Opportunities

Already this year, we have worked side-by-side with
international experts in all seven of C40’s main networks
on innovative treatments for waste, ground-breaking
transport decisions, and award-winning precinct
development.

We’ve been chosen to host, at C40’s expense, an

international network meeting here in Auckland in March.
We’ve been given a significant and useful technical
opportunity to lift our game as we monitor our successes
and plan our implementation. Based on our progress and
promise, we’ve been asked by C40 to lead the multi-city
waste network. And we’ve been recognised as a finalist
for two international awards, generating a good deal of
local and international attention. It’s been an abundantly
fruitful exchange within C40 and with C40 member cities –
and we’re only 12 months in.
C40 Cities Mayors deliver tangible benefits to their communities
(Photo courtesy of C40 Cities)
Cities are pragmatic in approaching climate change from the
fiercely local, human perspective. Doing so requires strong and
necessary partnership with citizens and communities – which may
help avoid the perils of a populace too disconnected, discontent
and distant from its governance. The C40 Cities chair, the Mayor
of Paris, has said that the important work on climate is innately

Auckland Sustainability Quarterly: Summer 2017 2


connected to the important work on inequality – that cities
that take action on climate change are looking after their
citizens. Doing so demonstrates that fighting climate
change translates into tangible, irresistible co-benefits for
all of us – like cleaner air and water, healthier communities
and better places to live with more affordable transport and
housing choice. And those cities and businesses willing to
innovate new low carbon approaches and technologies to
fight climate change also usher in a cleaner and more
prosperous economy that makes us all the richer for doing
so.
Indeed, we’re hard at work locally doing just that.
Auckland boasts ambitious urban regeneration projects, an
impressive revitalised waterfront, rapid cycleway
development, smarter ways of minimising and eliminating
waste, construction of the CRL and a transformation of the
city centre. Back this up with a Mayor who has strongly
signalled sustainability is a top priority, and it’s clear that
Auckland means business.
Low Carbon Auckland: Year Two
We’re two years into the implementation of Low Carbon Auckland
and, among the businesses, citizens and organisations charged
with getting the job done, momentum is growing. Auckland is
growing too. With 45,000 new Aucklanders each year, we’re set
to add about a million new people to our existing 1.6 million over
the next 25 years.
While this is a tremendous opportunity to attract talented and
diverse people and businesses, it also means that addressing
carbon emissions becomes even more vital for our continued
success and well-being. We need to build on our early and recent
low carbon successes and accelerate progress – in part to align
with our C40 membership commitments and Deadline 2020. This
means doubling down efforts to collaborate and innovate across
sectors and industries, quickly scaling up pilot projects, and
engaging all Aucklanders on our collective vision of a
sustainable, healthy and prosperous city. Read the report
online: http://tinyurl.com/LowCarbonAkl.

Increasing Government Ambition for a More

Successful Auckland – and New Zealand
Fortunately we also have a central government that is
committed to climate action. Its leadership is a natural
progression from last year’s role developing the Paris
Agreement, leading in fossil fuel subsidy reform and
standing strong with our Pacific Island neighbours that
increasingly live on the brink of their very existence.

Prime Minister English noted recently that “there is an

international framework in place underpinned by
internationally accepted science, and we expect New
Zealand to do its part” but that a moderate, not extreme,
response was warranted. Given evidence suggesting we
need to do far more (e.g., Deadline 2020), it may likely
“inflict considerable pain on the economy” – and on our
people – if we don’t significantly ramp up our local
ambitions.

Thus, we look forward to working with our new Prime

Minister and central government to translate their
international leadership into local ambition – a sensible mix
of needed domestic policy changes that will help Auckland
and New Zealand succeed and prosper.

And with clear direction and implementation of our low

carbon action plan in progress – see the piece in this
Quarterly on our second annual report – Auckland is ready
to work in partnership to move forward at pace.

The best thing we can do is to continue without hesitation

to lead. It is again our time for our city and nation to stand
proudly on the international stage and act with conviction –
for the positive benefit of our communities here and for
those around the world who are depending on us to do
exactly that.
Auckland Sustainability Quarterly: Summer 2017 3
Deadline 2020: Next Four Years Are Pivotal
At the C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City late last year,
C40 and Arup delivered a powerful analysis on how cities
can deliver a climate safe future.
Deadline 2020 is a data-driven route map for C40 cities to
actualise what all nations committed to in the Paris
Agreement: “holding the increase in the global average
temperature to well below 2 degrees… and efforts to limit
the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees.” It’s the first
significant pathway for translating the Paris Agreement to
on-the-ground action.
Councillor Penny Hulse presenting at the C40 Mayors Summit
The upshot isn’t a surprise if you’ve taken in the title: the
next four years are absolutely paramount to ensuring we’re
on track to avoid dangerous climate change.
The research finds that C40 cities can deliver over half the
emissions savings directly or in collaboration with C40 city
governments – and if all cities follow suit, actions in our
urban areas will deliver about 40% of the Paris Agreement.
A few more key findings on what is needed to meet the
ambitions of the Paris Agreement:
• Average per capita emissions across C40 cities need to
drop from 5 tonnes per capita now to under 3 by 2030
Auckland Sustainability Quarterly: Summer 2017
• Over USD$1 trillion investment is needed from now until 2050
across all C40 cities with $365 billion over the next four years
• 71% of estimated 14,000 actions needed in the next 4 years
need to come from wealthier, high carbon cities like Auckland
• Mayors can deliver or influence the majority of savings
needed to get to 1.5 degrees
• Structural changes outside cities must start to have a big
impact by 2023 at the latest; they’ll be main focus post-2030
• Real carbon sequestration by national governments will still
be required
What’s all this mean for Auckland? Deadline 2020 developed a
target per capita emissions trajectory for each C40 city. Taken
together, these trajectories allow the group of C40 cities to meet
an overall carbon budget in line with the 1.5 and 2 degree
temperature increase limits agreed to in the Paris Agreement.
Quite simply, per capita emissions in Auckland – at 7 tonnes per
person – need to come down to below 3 tonnes per person.
While this is in fact our current 2040 target, Deadline 2020
suggests we need to move faster: we’re a “steep decline” city
(Figure 1, below) needing to take “the bulk of the burden in the
first 15 years.” This means we may need to “achieve year-on-
year reductions of up to 25%” and virtually no emissions by 2035.
Is it time to revisit our 40% by 2040 target and join the vanguard
of world cities aiming for climate neutrality? Perhaps.
Regardless, the message is clear: the next four years matter and
we better pick up the pace. Not only do we owe it to the other
C40 cities who may have far more challenging circumstances, we
owe it to all Aucklanders since the co-benefits from taking
action are inevitable, incredible and irresistible.
8
Early peak
7
Late Peak
Emissions per capita (tCO2e)
6 Steady decline
Steep decline
5 C40 Average
4
3
2
1
-
2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045 2050
Figure 1. Projected per capita average emissions for four city typologies
under the 1.5°C scenario (courtesy of C40 Cities and Arup)
Read more at www.c40.org/other/deadline_2020
4
Leaning Out: the Importance of Imports
I recently spent time with business leaders, elected
officials, central governments and my counterparts in a
dozen C40 cities with an eye for how to, as the former
mayor of London put it, “shamelessly steal and implement
the best ideas.” I met with over 100 individuals, toured
sustainable precincts and developments with city officials
and elected leaders and also gave several presentations
and interviews in exchange.
Singapore has grown a reputation for bold action in green design,
density and place-making
Regrettably, there’s not nearly the space in these pages to
go into much detail – but between Amsterdam, Barcelona,
Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Paris, Rotterdam, Seattle,
Singapore, Stockholm, Toronto and a half-dozen other
non-C40 cities that also made the list – there certainly was
no shortage of brilliance to be pillaged.
Suffice to say we’ve started down the path of importing and
retrofitting some ideas into the Auckland context already,
so stay tuned. Meanwhile, five big picture takeaways:
1. Transport and land-use are the true foundation for
s successful and sustainable cities.
Density and light rail transport done well in Stockholm
Auckland Sustainability Quarterly: Summer 2017
None of the cities above have substandard public transport, all
are ferociously fond of cycling infrastructure, and successful
road pricing systems are up and running in three of them. All
have extraordinary examples of density done well, as having
more people doesn’t mean poor urban form, quality or
liveability but exactly the opposite
2. Cities are designed – or redesigned – for people.
The best city is a walkable, forested city – even if it means
arduous retrofits to un-design car dependence and claim back
public space in the right of way. In these cities, the car
necessarily takes a back seat for physical, health and financial
reasons while place-making, activation and public amenity like
parks, gardens and street trees are paramount. These human-
scale cities seem more civil, playful, inclusive, safe, and
democratic.
Barcelona weaves permeable pavement, light rail, urban forest canopy
and walkability together
3. Buildings and neighbourhoods are designed – or
r redesigned – for efficiency.
Buildings are hyper-efficient and cities are making a great
investment to ensure older buildings are too, given the huge
climate, social and economic gains over the longer term.
These cities are thinking far beyond the building to climate-
positive developments, precincts, and district energy systems
4. From zero to hero.
Zero waste still is a thing, like in Auckland, but the climate fight
has grown to become a hero economic development strategy.
Cities now look more toward creating a circular economy – one
that’s hyper-efficient, regenerative and restorative that creates
far more value from far fewer resources. It’s all about a smart,
low carbon and clean tech innovation economy – but with an
aim to actually deliver competitive advantage and outcomes for
people – not just shiny new tech for its own sake.
5
 The daily commute in Copenhagen: bikes as practical, accessible A green wall in Paris: buildings as functionally efficient and sustainable
and enjoyable transport solutions while being beautiful and inspiring
5. Successful cities adapt.

Climate impacts range across cities, but most have to deal

with, simply and at the very least, more water and more
heat. Enter green infrastructure and smarter natural
systems approaches which can deliver better outcomes for
far less cost – both short and long term.

Do these five things describe a city you’d like to live in?

While all cities wrestle with challenges, the point is that

these triumphs are possible right now and don’t just look
good on paper: they give cities soul, engage citizens more
meaningfully, and make people’s daily lives better.

So let’s get busy making it happen.

People take to the streets on a Thursday night in Mexico City. The

rd
world’s 3 largest city is taking bold steps on air quality and climate

CSO Staffing & Hiring News

Welcome to Dr. Sarah Anderson who joins the team as
CSO’s lead in climate resilience. Sarah brings an impressive
balance and blend of research, public policy and facilitation
expertise, serving most recently in the UK as Kent County
Council’s Environment Strategy Manager.

The CSO is hiring three Sustainability & Resilience

Advisors. We’re looking for smart, strategic and savvy
sustainability experts who will deliver analysis, advice and
Paris, known for historic monuments and architecture, is influence in sustainability and resilience, helping to mainstream
increasingly known for green space and climate adaptation sustainability as business as usual in organisational processes,
policies and programmes. Please visit the Auckland Council
careers website for more information and to
apply: www.careers.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Auckland Sustainability Quarterly: Summer 2017 6