Questions raised

WHILE THE BIOENERGY SECTOR HAS WELCOMED THE Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan announced last month, National Road Carriers wants more detail on the intention to cut freight emissions by 35% by 2035 by using low emissions trucks to transport food and other products.

National Road Carriers Chief Operating Officer, James Smith, says the plan for transport focusses almost entirely on personal transport, with “just one bullet point” committing $20 million to accelerate the decarbonisation of freight transport.

“The freight transport sector needs the Government to commit to lowcarbon infrastructure and provide incentives to road-freight companies to change their truck fleets,” he says.

“There are plenty of things the Government can do to encourage emissions reduction in road transport. For example, they could follow Australia’s lead by applying different depreciation rates to lower-emitting trucks.

“We also need clearer guidance regarding biofuels. And we need more investment in the infrastructure required to support alternative fuel trucks such as increasing the capacity of the electricity grid and a fast charger network capable of charging trucks. We could be doing more to encourage Euro 6 standard vehicles while we wait for these alternatives to become available in this country.

“The road transport industry is fully engaged in reducing emissions. The challenge is that the technology is not commercially available yet. Trucks are big ticket items with a long life. They can be on the road for 30 years – five years for front-line duties before dropping down to other tasks. What is the Government doing to enable a change in this technology?”

Meanwhile, Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association says the bioenergy sector has been developing the foundations for the use of biomass residues and recycling of organic waste, on which many of the policies and programmes announced can be built, and the sector is ready to expand.

“The supply of biomass residues from the forestry and wood processing sectors are critical to being able to replace fossil fuels. Recent work has shown that there is adequate biomass available from forestry and agriculture but we need to improve market information from buyers and sellers of biomass, so that we have the right quantities of biofuel, of the right type, available in the right place, at the right price,” he says.

“It is encouraging that the Government has approached emission reductions with a cross sector approach. It is also encouraging that the bioenergy emission reduction solutions have been coupled with the transition to a circular bioeconomy which will provide financial incentives for industry to be able to reduce costs, develop new income streams, and reduce emissions. New Zealand has been slow to adopt circular economy principles where food wastes are recycled to make other products rather than discharge to landfill. There is no reason why all communities across New Zealand could not have zero organic waste going to landfill, and additional value is derived from greater domestic processing of our forestry.

“If we focus on the domestic emissions reduction policies and programmes as set out in the ERP we should be able to avoid having to purchase international carbon credits which ensures that the investment required benefits New Zealand Inc and not some other country. It is a pity that this is not a primary focus of the Plan.”