NZ’s Long-Term Infrastructure Strategy Tackles Challenges and Opportunities 2022-2052

New Zealand’s infrastructure underpins the quality of life of all Kiwis. But the times are changing, and infrastructure needs to respond.

Climate change, population growth, the increasing demand for housing, growing congestion on roads, and aging pipelines are challenges facing the country and its infrastructure. Both must respond to the changing and future needs.

The New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga’s first long-term Infrastructure Strategy (2022-2052), lays out the challenges and opportunities for the country’s infrastructure in the next 30 years. It sets a vision for how New Zealand’s infrastructure can lay a foundation for the country’s people, places, and businesses to thrive for generations.

According to the Commission, “The strategy is the culmination of two years’ independent investigation and incorporates feedback from over 20,000 New Zealanders, over 700 consultation submissions, and meetings and workshops with stakeholders from all over New Zealand.”

Te Waihanga looks at infrastructure as an interconnected system noting that it should be holistic and takes a long-term view.

The report lays out the following infrastructure challenges facing New Zealand:

• Kiwis spend five days total sitting in traffic per year
• By 2050, one in four NZers will be over the age of 65
• $90 billion is required to fix the water networks
• $5 billion worth of municipal infrastructure is exposed to sea-level rise
• 115,000 more homes are needed to address the housing crisis
• A 75% chance of an Alpine Fault earthquake by 2070
• Electricity generation needs to increase by 170%
• For every $40 spent on infrastructure, $60 needs to be spent on renewals
• The country’s population will grow to 6.2 million or more in 30 years
• Infrastructure construction has risen 60% faster than prices elsewhere in the economy
• 50% of the population will live in five major centers – Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Christchurch, and Wellington.
• Shortage of construction workers estimated at 118,500 in 2024

“The purpose of this work is to develop a strategic response to the many challenges we face. This means looking at the infrastructure system as a whole: users, regulators, planners, investors, insurers, builders, asset owners, iwi, and communities. In a world of converging networks and complex needs, understanding the interdependencies and optimising the system across all sectors is our focus,” notes Ross Copland, Chief Executive of New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga.

In a press release, Grant Robertson, Deputy Prime Minister, says,

“The Strategy highlights the scale of the task still ahead of us…The strategy also shows that while further investment is critical, we must be smarter about how we plan for, deliver and use all of our infrastructure.”

“Trying to just build our way out of these challenges would mean nearly doubling what we currently spend to around 9.6 percent of GDP over a 30-year period. That’s over $31 billion per year – a sum that we would struggle to afford or have the capacity to deliver.”

“This means we need to get more from the infrastructure we build, reducing costs and prioritising for the greatest impact.”

“The Infrastructure Strategy seeks to make sense of New Zealand’s complex infrastructure environment by focusing on improvements to planning, project selection, and delivery of infrastructure; making better use of funding and financing tools; building workforce capability and capacity, and accelerating technology adoption. In taking a coordinated approach, it firmly places the wellbeing of New Zealanders at its core,” Robertson says.

The report, “Rautaki Hanganga o Aotearoa 2022 – 2052 New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy,” highlights the impacts of climate change, noting that it is the defining challenge of this century. Below are excerpts from the report.

• But infrastructure is a vital part of the solution. Reducing and managing emissions when building and operating our infrastructure, incorporating the long-term cost of carbon, and considering whole-of-life emissions when making infrastructure decisions can help meet the country’s net-zero carbon emissions economy by 2050.
  
  
• Meeting this ambition will also require significant energy transition and investment in new infrastructure. This includes decarbonizing the transport sector, which accounts for 38% of New Zealand’s non-agricultural emissions. Most of these emissions arise from fossil fuels used to power vehicles.
  
  
• Clean electricity will reduce carbon emissions from transport, process heat, and agricultural activities. Over the next 30 years, we’ll need to build significantly more low-emissions electricity generation, the report says.
  
  
• The cost of addressing all infrastructure challenges is massive and will require making trade-offs. “Because we have limited resources to build, operate, maintain, and renew infrastructure, we can’t invest everywhere at once. Improving infrastructure in one area can mean leaving needs unmet in another. The strategy notes that a careful prioritization of investment is needed when deciding where, when and how much to invest.
  
  
• It sets out choices that the country can take to address these challenges, such as making better use of infrastructure, undertaking better project selection, broadening funding and financing options, and streamlining delivery.
  
  
• The strategy provides 68 recommendations across the breadth of the infrastructure sector to build a more productive, resilient, and sustainable future for all New Zealanders. Following this, the Government will prepare its response, which will be shared in September 2022.

“The Government is now preparing a response to this strategy, which will set out the steps to turn strategy into action. As required by legislation, we will share this response in September…However, the recommendations in the strategy cannot be met by the Government alone. New Zealand needs the whole system, including central and local government, iwi/Māori and the private sector to work together to address the significant challenges we face. We all have a part to play,” Robertson says.

Grant Robertson, Deputy Prime Minister

Source:

New Zealand Infrastructure Commission (2022). Rautaki Hanganga o Aotearoa 2022 – 2052 New Zealand Infrastructure Strategy. Wellington: New Zealand Infrastructure Commission / Te Waihanga. Retrieved from https://strategy.tewaihanga.govt.nz/

This blog post first appeared in the Climate Adaptation Platform.