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Climate change plan get green light from Wellington regional council
Greater Wellington Regional Council has approved a plan to tackle climate change and combat the rising threat of storm surges, like this one in 2014, that hammered Wellington's south coast.
Wellington's regional councillors have made a public commitment to reduce their carbon footprint, but by how much remains to be seen.
Councillors have unanimously approved an official climate change strategy, which will guide how the council goes about combating global warming, which threatens to thrust more storms, droughts and sea-level rise upon the region.
The strategy document is full of aspirational goals but light on actual targets for reducing emissions – for now, at least.
More frequent droughts, like the one that hit Josje Neerincx's Greytown olive orchard in early 2015, are a real risk for the Wellington region.
Councillors were told at a meeting on Wednesday that Greater Wellington staff would need to measure the council's corporate emissions before any targets could be inserted into the strategy.
Council chairman Chris Laidlaw said it was time for the council to get on with the nitty gritty of bringing emissions down, as well as encouraging other councils across the region to jump on board with the plan.
"There is interest in a general joined-up approach to this," he said.
Despite not nailing the council down to any targets, the strategy document does throw up some of scenarios of what will happen if the council tries its hardest to get emissions down, or simply continues with business as usual.
Under the 'business as usual' scenario, net greenhouse gas emissions are projected to increase from 1,683,376 tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2012-13 to 1,739,825 tonnes in 2019-20 – a 3 per cent increase.
The alternative 'high ambition' scenario involves developing addition renewable electricity generation, improving landfill collection and waste water treatment systems, doubling the current number of electric busses while replacing 50 per cent of diesel busses with hybrid-diesel busses, and more use of biofuel for land transport and aviation.
This would cut emissions by 30 per cent by 2020.
Councillor Jenny Brash said the cost of converting the council's entire car fleet to fully electric vehicles should be investigated.
Fellow councillor Sue Kedgley said while lower emissions was the goal, the council should really be aiming for no emissions.
"We should be moving to electric buses and not swapping our electric trolley buses for diesel buses."
THE CURRENT PROBLEM
As a coastal region, hemmed in to the east, west and south by the sea, the impact of even a small rise in sea level will be significant and expensive for some landowners in the Wellington region.
About 37 per cent of the region's total greenhouse gas emissions come from transport, 33 per cent come from agriculture and 14 per cent from electricity consumption.
PREDICTED CHANGES
Sea level rise – Wellington is currently tracking towards a 0.8m rise by 2090.
Wind – The frequency of extreme winds over this century is likely to increase by between 2 per cent and 5 per cent in winter, and decrease by a similar amount in summer.
Rain – A small increase in rainfall in the west of the region and a decrease in the east is expected. Very heavy rainfall is likely to become more frequent.
Temperature – Compared to 1990, average temperatures are likely to be about 0.9 degrees Celsius warmer by 2040 and 2.1 degrees warmer by 2090.
THE COUNCIL'S CLIMATE CHANGE OBJECTIVES
- It will act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all its areas of influence, including its own operations.
- Risks from climate change-related impacts will be managed and resilience increased through consistent planning and actions based on best scientific information.
- Community awareness of climate change solutions will be increased.
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