Greater Wellington Regional Council calls for greater role for councils in meeting climate challenge

Greater Wellington Regional Council has emphasised the importance of central and local government partnerships in meeting challenges from climate change, in its submission on the Zero Carbon Bill.

Greater Wellington believes the Bill should include provisions that address climate change adaptation and bring local government into central government emission reduction plans, creating a partnership with the potential and capacity to bring about change at both national and regional levels.

“Anticipating and responding to climate change shouldn’t just be the preserve of central government,” says Greater Wellington chair Cr Chris Laidlaw. “Local authorities must be given the mandate also to help both manage emissions and adapt to the consequences of a rapidly changing climate on their own patches, working with other local authorities where it’s the right thing to do.

“Compelling evidence of this has just come to light with the publication of EQC payout figures that show coastal properties are disproportionately at risk from storms, with most claims going to properties within six kilometres of the coast. In the past, local government mandated settlement in these areas. Now, the risk and costs are too great and we have to work together to carefully reverse the trend of exposed settlement.

“To do so we need to eliminate obstacles to partnerships, so we are arguing that the Resource Management Act should be changed to end its prohibition on councils considering the effect of greenhouse gases in planning decisions, which has been in place since 2004.

“This absurdity should be removed to prevent even more emissions being ‘locked-in’ by poor planning decisions on long lived infrastructure and land-use changes. Instead, we should be working together, across boundaries where appropriate, to make far-sighted long term decisions on matters such as electric vehicle fleet purchasing, land use, creating carbon sinks, coastal erosion, flood protection and so forth.

“A start has been made by our Wellington Climate Change Steering Group, which involves local authorities from throughout the region. We are increasingly aware that we are all in this together and that nature doesn’t respect our boundaries” says Mr Laidlaw.

In welcoming the upcoming introduction of the Zero Carbon Bill Greater Wellington also recommended the Government use the momentum around the bill to move decisively and set a target in primary legislation for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

“We need certainty, and this will give a clear signal to everyone about the level and pace of change required for the country to achieve the commitment it made by signing the Paris Agreement.

“Mechanisms should be provided to strengthen emissions targets and budgets, given that the latest science is indicating the risks, likely impacts and costs associated with 2.0 degrees C of warming are even higher than first thought. Weakening targets should only be possible via legislation.”

Greater Wellington also supports a requirement that the Bill requires government to make action plans for achieving its emissions budgets. Each action plan should be adequate to meet the emissions budget and seek to mitigate uncertainties by reducing reliance on factors outside the government’s control (e.g. market forces relating to the availability and price of critical technologies). The plan needs to include and mobilise all those parties that can meaningfully contribute – local government, industry, businesses and communities.

Greater Wellington also argued the Government needs to ensure the agriculture sector is given the opportunity and assistance to adapt to secondary targets for individual gases, such as methane, without bearing unnecessary or disproportionate impacts.

“In short, we believe there should be a just transition to adaptation for the farming community,” says Mr Laidlaw.

Greater Wellington also submitted that the Bill should include a requirement for the Government to make a national adaptation plan, advised on by the Climate Commission.

ENDS

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