City’s ‘momentous’ climate change plan
The Nelson City Council is proposing the city cut its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 8.3% a year, in a bid to spur climate change action in the city.
The council’s draft climate change strategy suggested the community aim to reduce its gross greenhouse gas emissions, excluding biogenic methane, by either 6.83% or 8.3% a year between 2025 and 2035.
Councillors on Thursday gave the green light for public consultation on the draft.
Council climate change manager, Rachel Pemberton, said the 6.83% reduction target was based on national emissions budgets – five-yearly “stepping stones” towards New Zealand’s 2050 net zero target for greenhouse gas emissions, excluding biogenic methane.
The 8.3% target aligned with a recommendation from the IPCC (the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) that emissions be cut by at least 43% by 2030, relative to 2019 levels, in order to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C – the level of warming considered “safe”.
About a third of the country’s councils had set community emissions targets, with the council’s proposals in line with what other councils were doing, Pemberton said.
Having a yearly target was “designed to motivate climate action now rather than later“, she said.
The council preferred gross emissions cuts as that resulted in emissions being reduced at source, rather than net emissions reductions which relied on removals from forestry – allowing for greater predictability in the reductions pathway, and avoiding potential issues of double counting, she said.
The strategy was prepared with input from a community advisory group (six climate change experts and community representatives), Ngā Iwi o Te Tauihu, and the Council Climate Change Taskforce.
Taskforce chair, councillor Aaron Stallard said the strategy was about how Nelson could do its fair share to tackle climate change, “recognising that at a global level, the situation is the accumulation of many, many actions of individuals and councils and regions”.
Nelson mayor Nick Smith was “concerned about the practicality” of the community emissions targets, which he estimated would require billions of dollars, and requested a an amendment to analyse how much the targets would cost.
Deputy mayor Rohan O’Neill Stevens said addressing climate change got more expensive every year, and action was needed now with the world currently on track for nearly 3°C of warming by the end of the century.
Councillors rejected Smith’s proposed amendment by eight votes to three, with two absentions.
The council would now seek public feedback on the strategy from 10 March – 17 April.
The draft envisaged that by 2050, bold actions undertaken on climate change to transform the city would see enhanced environmental, social, cultural and economic outcomes.
Co-chair from the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum Joanna Santa Barbara congratulated the council on the plan, which “felt momentous“.
It recognised that urgent action was needed from “all of us”, to “preserve the possibility of a good life” for the young, she said.
Transport was confirmed as Nelson’s largest source of gross emissions at 61%, with stationary energy and waste joint second at 14%.
The strategy proposed dropping biogenic methane by 1.4% or 1.5% a year from 2025 – 2035.
The draft included a new emissions reduction target for council’s emissions – a 43% reduction in its transport and energy sectors from 2017/18 levels, by 2030.
The council exceeded its own previous emissions reduction target, reducing total emissions (representing 2% of Nelson’s community emissions) by 89% since 2017/18, largely due to methane capture at its landfill operations.
The council said it was due to start conversations with specific communities on climate change adaptation options soon.
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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