Vehicles are the low-hanging fruit: Dr Paul Winton

To rebuild a post-Covid economy and meet our zero emissions targets, where do we start? After trees and agriculture, there’s one sector that would make the biggest impact: transport. So says Dr Paul Winton of the 1point5 Project: a campaign to radically reduce NZ’s emissions by 2030 by decarbonising transport. “People say ‘every little bit count’s but that won’t make the scale of reductions we need. It must be bigger. This is our moment.”Paul says we need to stop building roads – we have enough. In urban areas we need to shift people into bikes, scooters and public transport. Nationally, we must replace ICE cars and trucks with EVs and build a country-wide charging infrastructure similar in scale to the ultra-fast broadband rollout.“The good news is that all these technologies exist and are commercially viable. And people want to make the change. The missing piece now is political action.”About Dr Paul Winton:Paul Winton has a PhD in engineering, is a former McKinsey consultant and is founder of Temple Capital Investment Specialists. His day job is to advise investors on what companies to start or to buy. But 18 months ago Paul saw news that stopped him in his tracks. As a result, he launched 1point5 Project with the support of Sir Stephen Tindal and others to educate and inspire leaders to reach zero emissions by 2030.