Dividends should not decide our fate

Mark Sinclair discusses the dangers of big business deciding the future of communities.

biggest elephant in the room is climate change and the impact that carbon emissions from jets in Central Otago will have. Ironically, the QLDC and QAC have both confirmed their commitment to minimising the impacts of climate change. But for the QLDC, this translates to things like introducing a fleet of electric vehicles and better recycling. For QAC this means energy efficient buildings and reducing waste. But neither organisation has stared the elephant directly in the face: if we build airports, if we double or triple jet traffic in and out of our district in the next 20 years, what will that do for emissions?

Even ignoring the massive carbon footprint of building a jet airport, the ongoing impact of jets is breathtaking. The science is straightforward, and the answers are available, but both organisations — and presumably also their counterparts at CIAL who are planning jets for Tarras — are avoiding going down that rabbit hole. That’s because the emissions from a busy little airport the size of Queenstown (preCovid19) are significant and shocking.

Add a new $400 million jet airport in Wanaka and the projected passenger movements which QAC has very publicly shared, and you can double those emissions. Then factor in an airport at Tarras, perhaps even bigger than Queenstown, and you are talking very difficult numbers in the context of climate change.

This conversation about our future is one which none of us can afford to ignore. Whether international borders open next year or next decade, this conversation, and what we decide to do as a region, will have longlasting impacts on the place our children and grandchildren call home.