Simon Wilson: A 10-point plan for cutting fossil-fuel dependency

Opinion by

New Zealand Listener

30 Mar, 2026 05:04 PM3 mins to read

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Fast track: Central Auckland’s Quay Street cycle lane offers a climate-friendly transport alternative. Photo / Getty Images

In 2021, when King Charles was still the Prince of Wales, he told the COP26 conference in Glasgow that climate action should be put on “what might be called a war-like footing”.

Charles wasn’t the first to link war efforts and climate action. He was amplifying what former Nasa
scientist James Hansen, UN secretary-general António Guterres and politicians including Al Gore and Elizabeth Warren had been saying for years.

What they mean is a society-wide mobilisation to cut greenhouse gas emissions, similar to the way countries reconfigured themselves during World War II. American car makers had to stop making cars and build army trucks and tanks; women were encouraged into the industrial workforce. The value is in what’s done and in the way it’s done by everyone.

Putting climate action on a war footing has always been a good idea, but how timely it is now, during an actual war that threatens oil and gas supplies. It’s hard to persuade people to drive less when petrol is cheap.

“Hope is not a plan,” says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, although his plan appears to rest on a hope that we’ll reduce our fossil-fuel use. What we really need is a plan to reduce fossil-fuel dependency.

Especially in cities. Earth Sciences New Zealand (formerly Niwa) says there is now a 50% chance of a “large flood” in a “populated New Zealand catchment” in any given year.

We’re already tracking ahead of that. In 2025, “significant storms” brought floods to Whangārei, Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin, mostly between April and October. The months we’re moving into now.

It’s not that cities are the only places at risk; far from it. But city storms affect more people, so the impact is higher.

Oil shocks happen more frequently than once a decade. Why are we still shocked? It’s been obvious since 1973 that fossil-fuel dependency undermines national security, the economy and social wellbeing. It’s funny how climate goals mesh so often with other societal values.

Can we do it? Of course, and cities should lead the way, because change is easier there and will have the greatest positive outcomes. Just for starters, here’s a 10-point plan.

1. Provide cash support for people in genuine hardship because of rising petrol prices, but don’t interfere in the market. Price signals are important.

2. Shelve the Roads of National Significance and planning for a new, car-focused Auckland harbour crossing. The Infrastructure Commission has told us we can’t afford all those megaprojects. Use the billions already allocated to help pay for the rest of this plan.

3. Strengthen the funding and legislative framework for “adaptation” to make cities, towns and rural areas more resilient to wild weather.

4. Rapidly expand rail-freight capability and incentivise use.

5. Supercharge public transport: reinstate free travel for children, reduce fares for everyone else and increase the frequency and range of services.

6. Jumpstart electric private transport, with incentives for EVs, e-bikes, cargo bikes, courier e-vans and e-trucks for “last mile” deliveries from warehouse to store.

7. Fast track cycleways and mass transit options that are relatively cheap and easy to build.

8. Subsidise a mass rollout of domestic and commercial rooftop solar.

9. Green-up the building code.

10. Make this a true “whole of government” project: renew the government policy statement on transport, scrap plans for a new LNG terminal, reform the energy sector, fast-track solar and wind farms and retire coal.

A wartime solution, a society-wide campaign. Carpe diem! I bet it would be exceptionally popular with voters. It could even be bipartisan: they do that during wars, too. l

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