The district’s tourism industry has announced a goal to be carbon zero by 2030.

The announcement was made during the presentation of the revised regenerative tourism strategy for the district - ‘Travel to a Thriving Future’ - in November.

Destination Queenstown chief executive Mat Woods presented the strategy to councillors, tourism operators and members of the public at a series of meetings.

"We know this is ambitious but we think tourism can actually do good, and change and help this environment," Mat said.  

Mat Woods PHOTO: Supplied

Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) is a partner to the plan along with Lake Wānaka Tourism, Destination Queenstown, Kai Tahu, and the Department of Conservation.

In a statement QLDC said the goal of carbon zero is carefully defined to include aviation, both flights into and from the district, and transport within the district.

It is also firmly committed to removing carbon and not using offsetting as a solution, council said.

Total emissions from the district’s tourism sector have not been measured so it is unclear at this stage what level of emissions reduction is required to meet the goal, however a council commissioned Tonkin + Taylor 2018 study, said the Queenstown lakes district had one of the highest rates of gross emissions per capita in New Zealand pre-Covid, at 18.5 tonnes per resident of "carbon dioxide equivalent" (CO2e). 

The carbon zero goal includes emissions from travel. PHOTO: Wānaka App

That figure does not include emissions from international flights.

The carbon-zero goal would include tackling 'scope 3' emissions - the emissions from tourists actually getting to the district, according to Rodney Payne, CEO of consultants Destination Think, which helped develop the strategy.

That's likely to be a sticking point, with Queenstown Airport Corporation forecasting passenger numbers (arrivals and departures) could grow to 3.2 million by 2032.

QAC chief executive Glen Sowry said the council-controlled company is "very supportive" of the aspiration.

"The reality is that aviation, much as we would love it to be, will not be carbon zero by 2030, when you think of scope 3 emissions," he said.

Glen says there are billions of dollars of investment going towards new technologies, such as hydrogen-powered and electric aircraft.

Earlier this month, Air New Zealand announced its plans to begin replacing its turbo-prop planes (Q300s) with more sustainable aircraft – likely green hydrogen or battery hybrid systems – from 2030, and Sounds Air has also announced that it is working with Sweden’s Heart Aerospace on their electric aircraft development. 

Along with the headline grabbing ‘zero carbon’ plan, the strategy has been streamlined to three pillars to help the district “travel to a thriving future”.

Pillar one is “enrich communities and enhance the visitor experience”; pillar two is “foster a visitor economy that restores the environment”; and pillar three is “build economic resilience, capability and productivity”.

There are 21 projects across the three pillars.

The final plan will be implemented as a partnership between Destination Queenstown (DQ), Lake Wānaka Tourism (LWT), Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC), Kāi Tahu and the Department of Conservation, and will be publicly released before the end of 2022. 

It will be presented to Queenstown Lakes District councillors in February 2023.

Related: A closer look at regenerative tourism