Last month, after many weeks of hard work, Informed Leaders launched. This is a group of 11 leading scientists who are urging decision makers not to proceed with the proposed new airport at Tarras, Central Otago. If you’ve not been to Tarras, you should. It’s in the heart of an unspoilt area of beauty and tranquility.
The new airport is is being proposed by Christchurch International Airport Limited (CIAL) which, in turn, is owned 75% by Christchurch City Council and 25% by government. In other words, the company is owned by ratepayers and taxpayers, but is run as an independent business with commercial aims and interests. Broadly, the plans are to build a very big, wide-bodied jet airport there, to bring tourists in to the lower South Island in large numbers.
Against the background of climate change, the issues that the aviation industry faces with decarbonisation and, more widely, the complexity of delivering sustainable tourism within New Zealand, plans for a new international jet airport just do not make sense. Nor do they sit well with various policy statements made by local, regional and central governments in New Zealand.
This is not a knee-jerk reaction. Our letter represents the views of some of New Zealand’s most experienced researchers with expertise in the fields of business, economics, climate science, sustainability, Māori and indigenous studies, tourism, the environment, agriculture, and policy studies. We have thought this through. And based on the science, we are concerned.
You can read the letter in full here, on the Informed Leaders website. The website also contains further information about the proposed airport and the concerns that I and my peers have about the proposal.
Media reaction to our launch was significant. After sending the letter to numerous stakeholders and decision makers, we shared it with the media. Over the next few days, we were interviewed by Stuff, Radio New Zealand, the Otago Daily Times, Crux, Newstalk ZB, Today FM, The Spinoff and Newsroom, just to name a few.
I’m sure that this will lead to interesting conversations with decision makers, with media and with the public. This is what we want. As we said in our letter:
“We are not anti-airport, anti-aviation, anti-business or anti-development. We understand the need for infrastructure. However, any proposal with widespread social, cultural and environmental impacts requires decision processes that are informed by the very latest research insights.”
Informed Leaders letter, 24th January 2023
It would appear from the strong messages of support and significant media interest, that many feel the same.