Tāmaki Makaurau – Taxpayer owned New Zealand Green Investment Finance (NZGIF) has put $50 million into increasing Aotearoa’s public transport fleet.
NZGIF has signed a $50 million financing deal with Kinetic, the biggest bus operator in Australasia, to further decarbonise public transport.
New Zealand Green Investment Finance says the money it is making available should fund more than 150 zero-emissions buses and associated infrastructure.
Switching another 150 buses to run on electricity instead of diesel will help Aotearoa meet its carbon budget, by preventing more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the lifetime of the assets, helping make sure New Zealand families live in a safe, clean and healthy environment.
Cyclone Gabrielle and the other extreme weather experienced this year shows why it is so important to cut climate pollution.
“Last week, the International Panel on Climate Change warned the world is still not doing enough to prevent dangerous levels of climate change and said that we need to move quickly to get emissions down.
New Zealand is committed to limiting climate warming to no more than 1.5 degrees, climate change minister James Shaw says. The switch to electric buses would also help save lives by cutting air pollution.
Every year in New Zealand, 2200 adults die prematurely and 13,200 children suffer from asthma because of air pollution caused by diesel burnt in cars, trucks and buses.
There is no downside to investing in efficient, clean public transport. New Zealand Green Investment Finance was established in 2019.
It’s job is to accelerate investment that will cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions. So far it has made 16 investments worth a total of $360 million and has another $200 million worth of investments in the pipeline.
As of 30 June last year, the total estimated lifetime emissions reductions as a result of NZGIF’s investments was 580,000 to 710,000 tonnes.
Investments to date include:
Investing in solarZero, which provides solar energy for homes, businesses and schools on an as-a-service basis so there is no upfront cost for solar panels and batteries
Helping Tnue finance a new low-emissions fertiliser plant near Taupō
Working with New Zealand Post to provide finance to help its contractors transition to electric vans
Helping electrify public transport through investments in Zenobē, as well as the new Kinetic investment
Finance to help CentrePort with decarbonisation projects, including replacing diesel container transfer vehicles with electric vehicles
At the end of last year, there were 2638 public transport buses in New Zealand. As of January this year, there were 203 electric buses on the road.
