Carbon assessment for transport

How do we incorporate carbon into investment decisions before we have any quantifiable emissions data?

Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency has pioneered an innovative approach to support investment decision-makers: the Climate Assessment of Transport Investment (CATI) model, which has been developed and refined over the past three years.

The CATI tool can be applied quickly at very early stages of investment programmes to assess their potential impact on carbon emissions. It can determine whether investment decisions might reduce or increase emissions, allowing decision-makers to shape how the spend profile might impact land transport emissions. With increasing focus on whole of life assessments of emissions, enabling early-stage qualitative assessment allows long-term decisions to be considered before programmes are put together for funding.

To guide carbon reduction investment, CATI is being integrated into the development of the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) 2024-27 and has been successfully applied to early Transport Business Cases. At the NLTP level, CATI can be used to develop, optimise, and assess whether on balance these large programmes of investment activities are aligned to the Government's transport emission reduction targets.

Acknowledging that there are many carbon-related tools available to support various aspects of transport emissions reduction, CATI is providing strong cut-through to inform critical early decision making where significant opportunities to reduce future emissions exist.