Auckland scores poorly for air quality

As the population and reliance on cars grow, the city is encouraging the planting of trees. Photo / Martin Sykes

The effect of Auckland City's growing and ageing population has been spelled out in a council environment review.

A yearly report indicates that the population of the isthmus and islands in the Hauraki Gulf will swell to 600,000 by 2035, from today's 438,000, and its median age will rise from 33 to 39.

Every four years the Auckland City Council releases Our Changing Environment, essentially a scorecard for our greenness, with environmental updates in the interim.

The council's most recent update, which measured data from 2007/08, is released today to coincide with World Environment Day.

It shows the council making gradual progress in energy efficiency, conservation, minimising waste and getting Aucklanders on buses, but facing increasing pollution.

One of its main concerns was worsening air quality.

As a city which loves cars, Auckland's air has become more clouded with pollution than the year before.

But the council cited the Queen St upgrades, near an air quality monitoring station, as one of the reasons for the poorer reading.

More than half of Aucklanders still drove to work by themselves, which was reflected in our heavy congestion, and the number of cyclists dropped in the past year.

But one of the council's successes was increasing public transport users by 9 per cent throughout the Auckland region.

The Ministry for the Environment says congestion in greater Auckland cost New Zealand's economy about $1 billion a year.

The council is striving to protect biodiversity, beyond nearly untouched islands in the gulf which support many native plants and animal species.

Originally Auckland was almost entirely covered by broadleaf, kauri forest, scrub and wetlands, but urbanised Auckland retains only 3 per cent of its natural vegetation.

Through tree-planting, pest control and heritage grants, the council is looking to encourage native species not only in isolation but in the parks scattered around the city and suburbs.

Electricity use fell by 3 per cent in the past year, with a marked decrease in commercial usage.

While residential electricity and natural gas usage increased, this can be attributed to population growth.

Water consumption increased fractionally in the past year, and the report highlighted an increase in wastewater and poorer quality water at popular beaches.

Seven out of 20 of Auckland's most popular beaches had excessive levels of bacteria, and Judges Bay and Pah Bay were temporarily deemed unsafe.

REPORT CARD

Auckland city's bill of health (2008)

* Electricity use - down 3 per cent

* Public transport use - up 9 per cent

* Water consumption - up 0.3 per cent

* Domestic waste - down 3.5 per cent

* Recycling of waste - up 1 per cent

* GDP - up 3.4 per cent to June

* Air quality - poorer