Overseas New Zealanders who are now trying to return home are facing a queue of tens of thousands of people as the country reopens bookings to cross the border.

New Zealand's borders have been strictly controlled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic – only citizens, permanent residents and a handful of essential workers can enter.&nbsp;

Also, all of them must make a booking to spend two weeks in government-controlled quarantine (MIQ). The demand for these spaces has been increasing drastically.

As per reports by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment &nbsp;31,800 people were in the queue on Monday, and 5,364 of them secured vouchers for rooms.

The vouchers were released at 9am and all were gone within two and a half hours.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/new-fissure-opens-in-canary-islands-volcano-414630">Also read |&nbsp;New fissure opens in Canary Islands volcano</a>

The joint head of MIQ, Megan Main, in a statement said, "I know many thousands of people missed out on vouchers in today’s release."

She added, "I want to reassure people that there are still several thousand vouchers still to be released through to the end of the year. They will get other chances. There will be another large release of a few thousand vouchers early next week and there may also be another smaller one later this week.” 
New Zealand struggles to battle the Delta variant outbreak.&nbsp;

A level 4 lockdown has managed to reduce daily case numbers to about 11-24 a day but has not yet eliminated community transmission completely.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland, the centre of the outbreak, would move out of its level 4 lockdown into level 3 restrictions.

This will allow socially distanced services like takeaway food, at midnight on Tuesday.&nbsp;

The rest of the country is at level 2, no longer in lockdown, but with some restrictions on gathering size and mask-wearing.

New Zealand reported 14 new cases on Tuesday.&nbsp;

There are now 1,085 cases in the outbreak, 790 of which have recovered.

Overseas New Zealanders who are now trying to return home are facing a queue of tens of thousands of people as the country reopens bookings to cross the border. New Zealand's borders have been strictly controlled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic – only citizens, permanent residents and a handful of essential workers can enter.

Overseas New Zealanders who are now trying to return home are facing a queue of tens of thousands of people as the country reopens bookings to cross the border. New Zealand's borders have been strictly controlled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic – only citizens, permanent residents and a handful of essential workers can enter. Also, all of them must make a booking to spend two weeks in government-controlled quarantine (MIQ). The demand for these spaces has been increasing drastically. As per reports by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment 31,800 people were in the queue on Monday, and 5,364 of them secured vouchers for rooms. The vouchers were released at 9am and all were gone within two and a half hours. Also read | New fissure opens in Canary Islands volcano The joint head of MIQ, Megan Main, in a statement said, "I know many thousands of people missed out on vouchers in today’s release." She added, "I want to reassure people that there are still several thousand vouchers still to be released through to the end of the year. They will get other chances. There will be another large release of a few thousand vouchers early next week and there may also be another smaller one later this week.” New Zealand struggles to battle the Delta variant outbreak. A level 4 lockdown has managed to reduce daily case numbers to about 11-24 a day but has not yet eliminated community transmission completely. Meanwhile, on Monday, Prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland, the centre of the outbreak, would move out of its level 4 lockdown into level 3 restrictions. This will allow socially distanced services like takeaway food, at midnight on Tuesday. The rest of the country is at level 2, no longer in lockdown, but with some restrictions on gathering size and mask-wearing. New Zealand reported 14 new cases on Tuesday. There are now 1,085 cases in the outbreak, 790 of which have recovered.

Frustration for New Zealand returnees as COVID-19 quarantine waiting list hits 30,000

&ldquo;When the earth is sick and polluted, human health is impossible.... To heal ourselves we must heal our planet, and to heal our planet we must heal ourselves&rdquo; --Bobby Mcleod, Aboriginal poet and activist,&nbsp; 
 
These words provide us with a poignant reminder about what needs to be done to save our planet. Fast-paced consumerism and insatiable materialism have come to define our species and in the process set our planet on the path to destruction. Our rapacious greed has put a question mark on the future of the only known planet in the universe that can sustain life. 
 
The time could not be more ripe to launch aggressive self-correction measures. Unfortunately, our leaders are still in a game of establishing onus on the basis of traditional responsibility, rather than coming together to take strong and decisive measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions. While the political economy of climate change goals has led to some sort of a stalemate in the international arena, there are solutions which can be adopted by cities to rein in rising air pollution levels without much dependence from political leaders. These solutions can be implemented by business models that inherently support environmental goals.&nbsp; 
 
For example, one of the biggest sources of pollution is automobiles. While moving to cleaner and more efficient fuel-operated vehicles is the most ideal option for curtailing city pollution levels, in emerging economies considerable time is needed before complementary infrastructure can be created to support this move. Thus, there is a dire need to think of short-term solutions that can address the challenge of rising car ownership and pollution levels in the city. 
 
Recently, the role of transporting people from point A to point B in a city has been assumed by technology aggregators. A complex innovation displayed in the simplest form is solving the inefficiencies that have haunted the urban transportation sector for centuries. But do these players solve other challenges through their technology? In particular, aren&rsquo;t the aggregators simply adding more cars on the road and adding to traffic snarls and city pollution levels? The answer is no!&nbsp; 
 
The sophistication of technology has allowed them to build products that marry innovation with traditional concepts aimed at reducing congestion and pollution. One such product is &ldquo;carpooling&rdquo; or &ldquo;ridesharing&rdquo; as these aggregators are calling it today. Simply put, the idea is aimed at efficient utilisation of existing assets while directly impacting a city&rsquo;s space availability and carbon emissions generated by vehicles. The concept is old but the advancement in technology has navigated the challenges the idea encountered in a non-digital space such as optimising conflicting schedules, making sharing a ride comfortable, et cetera. However, amid all the talk about decongestion of cities and cheaper transport options that have been generated by these options, a quiet revolution has the potential of making significant value additions to our climate change goals. 
 
Ridesharing promotes more people in fewer cars and results in the reduction of emissions, because the number of kilometres driven across a city and fuel burned are reduced significantly. Further, as more people embrace this means of transportation, a wonderful and complementary relationship is created between public transport and these services, which disincentivises car ownership substantially. At a time when cities like Delhi have a vehicular density of 80 vehicles per kilometre and 27 lakh personal vehicles with 1,463 new vehicles added to the city every day, one is compelled to think of scenarios which can reverse this trend. 
 
A &ldquo;stick&rdquo; approach would entail levy of congestion charges and other related taxes, but a more innovative solution comes in the form of people using their existing personal vehicles to offer rides to other people travelling to the same destination or nearby. The experiment has already generated positive impact from both a decongestion and environmental perspective. 
 
For example, Uber&rsquo;s study of ridesharing in LA revealed that in eight months it managed to reduce 1,400 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions. In San Francisco, the monthly reduction totalled 120 metric tonnes. As this model is scaled, it will further benefit the environment not only because of reduced emissions but also because of the opening up of urban space which would otherwise be earmarked for public parking or extension of road lengths. The free space could be used for environmental goals, such as the creation of public parks.&nbsp; 
 
It is estimated that every carpool helps remove four cars from the road, which is as good as planting 4,000 trees. Imagine the impact we can have on Delhi&rsquo;s abysmal air pollution levels if we turned on the private ridesharing switch on each of its its 27 lakh personal vehicle. 
 
This is essentially the way forward for ensuring sustainable development &ndash; building profitable business models led by technology-driven solutions that also benefit collective environmental goals. Such ideas require public and government support. An enabling regulatory landscape would help environmentally-conscious companies to scale their business and effect momentous transformation in the way we have traditionally operated. 
 
To this end, while we continue to bicker over the Intended Nationally Determined Commitments (INDC) and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR), there is a real opportunity for local government, citizenry and businesses to come together and bring about incremental changes to reduce emissions.

As climate change worsens cleaner transportation is essential, but waiting for politicians to act is taking forever...

“When the earth is sick and polluted, human health is impossible.... To heal ourselves we must heal our planet, and to heal our planet we must heal ourselves” --Bobby Mcleod, Aboriginal poet and activist, These words provide us with a poignant reminder about what needs to be done to save our planet. Fast-paced consumerism and insatiable materialism have come to define our species and in the process set our planet on the path to destruction. Our rapacious greed has put a question mark on the future of the only known planet in the universe that can sustain life. The time could not be more ripe to launch aggressive self-correction measures. Unfortunately, our leaders are still in a game of establishing onus on the basis of traditional responsibility, rather than coming together to take strong and decisive measures aimed at reducing carbon emissions. While the political economy of climate change goals has led to some sort of a stalemate in the international arena, there are solutions which can be adopted by cities to rein in rising air pollution levels without much dependence from political leaders. These solutions can be implemented by business models that inherently support environmental goals. For example, one of the biggest sources of pollution is automobiles. While moving to cleaner and more efficient fuel-operated vehicles is the most ideal option for curtailing city pollution levels, in emerging economies considerable time is needed before complementary infrastructure can be created to support this move. Thus, there is a dire need to think of short-term solutions that can address the challenge of rising car ownership and pollution levels in the city. Recently, the role of transporting people from point A to point B in a city has been assumed by technology aggregators. A complex innovation displayed in the simplest form is solving the inefficiencies that have haunted the urban transportation sector for centuries. But do these players solve other challenges through their technology? In particular, aren’t the aggregators simply adding more cars on the road and adding to traffic snarls and city pollution levels? The answer is no! The sophistication of technology has allowed them to build products that marry innovation with traditional concepts aimed at reducing congestion and pollution. One such product is “carpooling” or “ridesharing” as these aggregators are calling it today. Simply put, the idea is aimed at efficient utilisation of existing assets while directly impacting a city’s space availability and carbon emissions generated by vehicles. The concept is old but the advancement in technology has navigated the challenges the idea encountered in a non-digital space such as optimising conflicting schedules, making sharing a ride comfortable, et cetera. However, amid all the talk about decongestion of cities and cheaper transport options that have been generated by these options, a quiet revolution has the potential of making significant value additions to our climate change goals. Ridesharing promotes more people in fewer cars and results in the reduction of emissions, because the number of kilometres driven across a city and fuel burned are reduced significantly. Further, as more people embrace this means of transportation, a wonderful and complementary relationship is created between public transport and these services, which disincentivises car ownership substantially. At a time when cities like Delhi have a vehicular density of 80 vehicles per kilometre and 27 lakh personal vehicles with 1,463 new vehicles added to the city every day, one is compelled to think of scenarios which can reverse this trend. A “stick” approach would entail levy of congestion charges and other related taxes, but a more innovative solution comes in the form of people using their existing personal vehicles to offer rides to other people travelling to the same destination or nearby. The experiment has already generated positive impact from both a decongestion and environmental perspective. For example, Uber’s study of ridesharing in LA revealed that in eight months it managed to reduce 1,400 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions. In San Francisco, the monthly reduction totalled 120 metric tonnes. As this model is scaled, it will further benefit the environment not only because of reduced emissions but also because of the opening up of urban space which would otherwise be earmarked for public parking or extension of road lengths. The free space could be used for environmental goals, such as the creation of public parks. It is estimated that every carpool helps remove four cars from the road, which is as good as planting 4,000 trees. Imagine the impact we can have on Delhi’s abysmal air pollution levels if we turned on the private ridesharing switch on each of its its 27 lakh personal vehicle. This is essentially the way forward for ensuring sustainable development – building profitable business models led by technology-driven solutions that also benefit collective environmental goals. Such ideas require public and government support. An enabling regulatory landscape would help environmentally-conscious companies to scale their business and effect momentous transformation in the way we have traditionally operated. To this end, while we continue to bicker over the Intended Nationally Determined Commitments (INDC) and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR), there is a real opportunity for local government, citizenry and businesses to come together and bring about incremental changes to reduce emissions.

Technology and business must combine to help commuters navigate congested cities

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