Climate resilience and sustainability

Te Ara Awataha greenway flows out of a culvert to a newly rehabilitated environment dotted with young native plants, rocks and embankment protections. These will make good homes for aquatic creatures native to the area. A stairway with a bright red balustrade flows over the top of the culvert, and in the background is Northcote primary school. It is a typical, partly cloudy Auckland day.

The Te Ara Awataha greenway in Northcote is characterised by the physical presence of the Awataha Stream that for decades mostly flowed underground in a pipe.

Welcome to the new climate resilience and sustainability section, this section will be developed further over time. We cover a wide range of topics, including carbon emissions, climate plans, sustainability, and eco-design and Homestar ratings and case studies.

Te Tāruke-a-Tāwhiri: Auckland's Climate Plan 2020

A mural drawn on a sheet of brown paper by the rangatahi who gave their input to this kaupapa. The words "whenua", "whare" and "all voices are equal" sit prominently on the image with various other iconography they related to.

Te Tāruke-ā-Tāwhiri: Auckland’s Climate Plan is Auckland Council’s roadmap to a zero-emissions, resilient and healthier region that is better connected to the environment and able to thrive in the face of ongoing change and disruption. Auckland’s Climate Plan identifies growing ngahere and implementing nature-based solutions such as green infrastructure as two of the priority action areas towards achieving this goal. 

Auckland is a signatory of the C40 Green and Healthy Streets Declaration, committing to transform Auckland’s streets into greener, healthier and more prosperous places to live.

Hīkina te Wero – Environment Action Plan 2020-2030

People riding their scooters and bikes home from a long day at work on the Te Ara Ki Uta Ki Tai St Johns Road to Ōrākei Basin Shared Path. It is a beautifully crafted pathway with wooden rails and downlighting for safety, and the natural environment of the Ōrākei Basin is all around.

Auckland Transport’s Hīkina te Wero – Environment Action Plan provides outcomes, targets and actions towards protecting and restoring the environment. Targets include increasing canopy cover along road corridors to on average 12 per cent and, increasing pervious surfaces along corridors that connect areas of high ecological value by 10 per cent through planting, green roofs and paving.

Climate resilience and sustainability

The facade of the North Wharf Apartments in the golden light of the setting sun. The street below the windows is hemmed with lush native trees, and people are walking about.

The Waitematā Urban Ngahere Action Plan provides the Waitematā Local Board’s goals, objectives and actions in relation to the assessment, protection, management and development of the urban forest within the Waitematā local board area that includes the city centre. The Action Plan is established in accordance with Auckland’s Urban Ngahere (Forest) Strategy, which identifies the following benefits from Auckland’s urban ngahere. The Action Plan identifies that the existing tree canopy cover in the city centre is approximately 10%, and the total canopy cover in the Waitematā local board area is 19 per cent.