Emissions, Food Miles Rule CBAFF Conference
May 29th, 2008
The Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Federation conference has been told the food miles debate threatens to undermine NZ’s exports due to the long supply chains they require. It is not an argument the country nor the freight forwarding industry can afford to ignore even if much of the debate is based on misleading and unscientific research. Although the freight forwarding sector has made good progress in reducing carbon emissions, to achieve further reductions greater co-operation between industry players will be needed.
Bottlenecks Raising Emissions. Simon Tapper, Director of Tapper Transport Limited, says thousands of extra truck journeys are made through Auckland than is necessary in part because container deports are not open 24 hours a day seven days a week. The situation is being made worse by Land Transport NZ’s refusal to allow the operation of heavier and larger trucks on selected routes. He claims this is also increasing the number of container truck movements in the region more than would otherwise be the case.
Ships Better Than Rail Buy Back. Pacifica Shipping National Sales and Marketing Manager, Richard Allan, says emissions could be cut by greater support for coastal shipping. He says the Govt spending $665m on buying back the rail operations could have been better spent on coastal shipping. He also wants a fairer deal for coastal ships when it comes to emissions trading. He says it should provide credits for local ships competing directly with overseas owned vessels. The scheme in its present form will boost the cost of moving a container by ship between Auckland and Christchurch by 5% giving overseas shipping lines a further advantage over NZ flagged vessels.
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