Climate change

It has been interesting watching the greening of Goff as mayor. He came to office on a platform to improve transport and housing with a promise to plant a million trees tagged on for good measure.

It wasn’t until the end of his first term that Goff started taking the threat posed by climate change seriously — a climate emergency was declared midway through 2019 — in conjunction with the likes of councillors Chris Darby, Richard Hills and the soon-to-be elected Pippa Coom.

However, Goff’s managerial style of incrementalism shies away from radical action on climate change in favour of modest steps.

He considered a targeted rate for climate action in the 10-year budget, but opted instead for a budget of $150m in response to a bold commitment to halve the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

With financial help from the Government, the council will only buy electric or hydrogen powered buses from July this year. Other projects in the wings include more money for the Zero Waste resource recovery work, solar panels on council facilities and planting 11,000 more street trees.

Where the council is getting unstuck, is around plans to ban cars and green Queen St at a time when the city’s premier street is an ugly mess, shops are closing, overseas students and tourists are nonexistent, and businesses are struggling in the face of Covid.

The controversial closure of Queen St is part of Access for Everyone(A4E), a plan to limit private cars in the central city in favour of pedestrians, public transport, walking and cycling. To make it work properly it will cost $420m for two roading projects to divert cars around the city — and neither Auckland Transport nor Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency are showing the urgency required to lay the tarmac.