Low Carbon Kāpiti Blog

By Alison Lash, 27 August 2022

As most of us probably know, much of the Kāpiti coastal plain used to be a swamp.  Prior to Pākehā settlement, Māori used and managed the area as a vast food basket.  Pākehā settlers were unable to recognise the value of the area as a food source – to their eyes it was “empty” and “unproductive” land.  It’s a familiar story and resulted in the felling of the forests and the draining of the swamps in order to create pasture and market gardens.

That was then, this is now.  A hundred and fifty years later, we are faced with issues that neither Māori nor Pākeha could have conceived of back then: an over-heating atmosphere, rising seas, increasing floods and more severe droughts.  Over the last couple of decades there has been a lot of discussion of these issues as they affect Kāpiti but one issue still seems to fly under the radar – rising ground water levels.

[Read more…] about The swamps are coming back. What are we going to do about it?

The overlooked opportunity in response to the housing problem and climate emergency

By Sahra Kress, 25 August 2022

I have a lot I could say about living simply, but I will restrain myself to a few brief paragraphs about so-called ‘tiny houses’, and let the pictures say the rest.

[Read more…] about The Beauty of Simplicity- Tiny House Living

By Paul Callister, 19 August 2022

After years of Kāpiti ratepayers subsidising just a few passengers per day to fly out of Kāpiti airport, its closure in its current form gets closer. So what are the alternatives?

There are those still lobbying to keep the airport open. The key group is the Kāpiti Aeroclub. They are users of the airport but do not own the land. Their vision, set out on a website, is for housing, ‘zero emission’ flights and an innovation hub.

“Kāpiti airfield presents an opportunity for our district to become a National leader in carbon emission reduction through the utilisation of E-commuter aircraft. 

[Read more…] about Our ghost airport: An opportunity to build much needed houses

By Paul Callister and Robert McLachlan, 15 August 2022

Right now, we burn 10 tonnes of jet fuel every second – that’s an Olympic swimming pool every three minutes. To replace this with sustainable aviation fuel would require the current production to be increased by over 1,000 times. Aviation Accelerator Group, 2022

In 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, New Zealand along with twenty-two other countries joined the “International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition”, committing, amongst other things, to “Preparing up-to-date state action plans detailing ambitious and concrete national action to reduce aviation emissions and submitting these plans to ICAO well in advance of the 41st ICAO Assembly”. This Assembly of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization will take place in September 2022.

It will be a real challenge for New Zealand. We are a nation of flyers. Our per capita domestic emissions are seven times those of mainland UK and nine times those of Germany.

[Read more…] about Decarbonising aviation: Fact or magical solutions?

By Michael Nicholson, 8 August 2022

Rail Transport – Green Credentials

Rail transport is a very energy efficient form of transport with excellent green credentials. Steel-wheels upon steel-rails provides low friction and therefore low rolling resistance, resulting in much reduced energy usage compared to air and road transport. KiwiRail is said to cause 70% less emissions than road transport, even with the majority of their trains operated using diesel locomotives. Rail transport becomes zero emissions when electrified. In addition, modern electric locomotives and passenger rolling stock can recoup energy via regenerative braking technology, recapturing between 10-45% of the original energy used. This recouped energy can be used by other trains or feed back into the national power grid.

Passenger Rail – Low Emissions Travel

International studies show that modern passenger rail is by far the least polluting form of surface transport there is. Throughout the world there is a growing recognition of the role which modern passenger rail can play in drastically reducing emissions.

[Read more…] about Local Trains, Regional Trains and Long-Distance Trains – Low Emission Travel