Transport Minister Michael Wood says changes to planned roading upgrades have been "rebalanced" in light of the Climate Change Commission's advice.
The government is reworking some of the New Zealand upgrade plans it promised more than a year ago, blaming rising costs and a sharper environmental focus.
Six out the 32 multi-billion dollar projects wont go ahead as planned - the extra cost across all the projects would have bumped the price up by $6 billion.
To cut costs and carbon emissions It's pulled U-turns on a 22km four-lane upgrade to State Highway 1 in Northland and South Auckland's Mill road project - an extension and upgrade to four lanes.
Instead Northport gets a new rail link and South Auckland gets rail upgrades with more train stations connected to public transport, walking and cycling ways.
"What is new this year in terms of the climate perspective is that the climate change commission has now delivered to us its indicative report which tells us about the significant changes we'll need to make in the transport sector," Wood told Checkpoint.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"It is only appropriate and responsible that we consider that advice as we're making these big investments - that's been a part of the rebalancing.
"It is a new situation, to have an independent climate commission, and they're very clear about the kinds of changes we're going to need to make across our transport system... transport has one of the most significant roles to play in terms of New Zealand meeting net zero by 2050."
He said the rebalancing they had achieved would help New Zealand get onto that path.
"We've now got even stronger evidence on the table of the need to look at things differently and that's contributed to the rebalancing today."
Around 120,000 extra people are expected to be living in the area affected by the Mill Road upgrade in the next three decades, but Wood said that would be addressed by the new package.
"That's why we have a huge amount of investment going in there. In this broader package, there's investment going into electrifying the train line between Papakura and Pukekohe so those people are part of the Auckland network.
"There's investment in a third main [rail] line; there's investment in improving capacity on State Highway 1. In today's announcement, we're able to confirm there will be three new rail stations so that, in those growth areas, we're directly linking those communities into the public transport network from the get-go."
He said that, along with cycle and walkways, will not only better the country's carbon footprint, it will take pressure off the roading network.
"Let me be really clear about this, this country has declared a climate emergency. The opposition even stood up in Parliament and declared it and voted for the Climate Change Response Act. We cannot carry on doing the same things that we did before that and expect different outcomes.
"I'm actually really proud of the fact that we have said in this package that we are going to rebalance, we're going to figure out transport investment that doesn't continue to contribute to climate change and doesn't continue to contribute to congestion."
As for the feebate scheme on electric vehicles, which was scuppered by NZ First in 2020, Woods said there will be a significant announcement coming in the next two weeks.
"To be very clear, if we're going to make this transition to decarbonise transport - which is one of the biggest things we can do to meet our climate change objectives - we are going to have to have a range of changes. We're starting to make those changes today."
