Air pollution drops across Auckland, but city centre levels remain highest

Vehicle-related air pollution in the Auckland city centre has dropped by nearly 50 per cent since 2020, new research from Auckland Council shows.

Auckland Council’s lead air quality scientist Gustavo Olivares Pino says this significant drop can be attributed to changes in technology and driving habits around the city.

“Vehicles have been increasingly getting cleaner and cleaner in terms of the emissions that they produce.

“We’ve also been very intentional in making our city centre more people-centric and facilitating the movement of people… if you compare Queen Street, which used to be a four-lane street with lots of traffic around, nowadays you mainly see buses, delivery vehicles and the odd personal car.”

Olivares Pino says the electrification of buses has also contributed to the decrease in air pollution, and he expects the opening of the City Rail Link to continue to improve the city’s air quality.

He says Auckland’s geography is also advantageous to the city.

“We can get away with a lot being situated between the two harbours [Manukau and Waitematā]… there's always wind blowing on the city of sails and that wind moves the pollution very efficiently.

“Places like Mexico, Santiago, Los Angeles and London have different geography, and it is much more likely in those places that you have the same weather system keeping the air over the city for longer, accumulating all the pollution.”

Levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) have also declined around 10 per cent city-wide in the past year.

Olivares Pino says these results can “give us confidence that by moving vehicles around and changing the way our central city works, we can have an impact on the air quality of the area”.

Air pollution levels remain higher in Auckland’s city centre compared to the rest of Auckland. Photo: Auckland Council

Despite this overall drop, levels of air pollution remain higher in the city centre compared to the rest of Auckland.

A 2024 Ministry for Environment report says air quality directly affects health and quality of life, with air pollution playing a part in thousands of premature deaths annually.

City Centre Resident’s Group chair Antony Phillips says this has caused concern for him and his community, who “carry the load” of decisions made by local and central government.

“The people who live here don't have any other options. We live in apartment buildings, which rely on ventilation systems.

“There is definitely concern for people who live near the Port… we get a lot of cruise ships coming in and sometimes when they can’t quite dock, they anchor in the harbour and just leave their engines running”.

The Ministry for Environment say domestic shipping is a significant source of sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions, which greatly affects the air quality of areas surrounding the Port of Auckland.

Phillips says “the transition to green energy solutions is much better for us [city centre residents]”.

As a result, he says he will continue to advocate for cleaner, more sustainable transport options.

“It is really important that we treat this as a health issue as well as an environmental issue… and thinking about all those people who have to sustain unfortunate levels of health because we’re not able to get the environmental settings right.

“This isn’t about having a political agenda, it’s about creating a healthy community and environment, with people’s health and well-being at the centre of those decisions.”

-----

AI was not used in the creation of this story