Submission to Infrastructure Commission

We recently took the opportunity to have our say on the direction of the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission’s 30-year infrastructure strategy He Tūāpapa ki te Ora – Infrastructure for a Better Future.

Our submission emphasises the importance of well-planned infrastructure investments for achieving deep emission reductions. This is crucial if Aotearoa is to meet its climate targets. An appropriate decision-making framework to support sound investment is urgently needed to ensure this.

Our submission recognises that infrastructure affects how people live, work and travel, and the choices they can make. Designing compact communities with infrastructure that enables easy access to rapid transit, and supports walking and cycling, can lead to significant emissions reductions over time by reducing reliance on private vehicles.

Our advice talks about how infrastructure being planned and built now needs to be compatible with achieving net zero long-lived greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Infrastructure also needs to be resilient to the impacts of climate change.

The key areas of action we provided feedback on are:

• Joining up the three key areas of action - There are important interactions between these areas that need to be considered as policy and approaches are developed.
• Factor climate change into business care guidelines and cost-benefit analyses for infrastructure projects -we have emphasised the need to deliver infrastructure that is resilient to future change – including climate change.
• Access to consistent and reliable data, information and guidance - this is crucial for entities planning and investing in infrastructure. 

If you would like to read our submission, you can find it here.