April 2 2019

Residents Rally as Thames Council votes on Climate Declaration

From 8am on Tuesday April 2 local residents in Thames will be rallying at the Council buiildings to encourage District Councillors to vote in support for the Local Government Climate Change Declaration. “ We are here to support Council to do the right thing and take comprehensive leadership on this issue so that we play our part in reducing fossil fuel emissions as well as planning for the impacts of climate chaos in this vulnerable region” says Sheena Beaton spokesperson for the Hauraki Coromandel Climate Action Group.

“ Before the vote on the Declaration today the young students who led the schools climate march in Thames will address Council and a local resident will also speak on the Mayor’s report on the issuewhich seems to reflect her bias against the Declaration and against substantive action in climate change. The public rallying today are wearing life jackets because we know this is an emergency even if the Mayor and some Councillors do not want to face up to it” Ms Beaton said.

The vote is likely to be held later in the morning.

Mayors Report

TCDC Mayor Sandra Goudie has not trusted her own expert staff to produce an independent report on the Local Government NZ Climate Change Declaration. She insisted on writing the report herself. The report is full of misrepresentations which only confirm her biased opposition.

Her suggestion that the Declaration is “binding” is laughable. President of LGNZ, Dave Cull has directly contradicted the Mayor. Most councils have signed the Declaration. None of them are at all concerned about the Declaration binding them to an undesired project or “unknown financial consequences”. The report ignores TCDC’s own analysis which shows that hundreds of millions of dollars of TCDC assets are at risk from sea level rise. It ignores the significant savings for ratepayers (already recognised by many other councils) of taking action to reduce emissions. The Mayor willfully misinterprets a LGNZ legal opinion by suggesting that signing the Declaration will expose the Council to litigation risk. The exact opposite is true. The LGNZ opinion warns that there is substantial litigation risk to Councils from inaction by allowing risky development and/or failing to implement adaptation measures. She claims that the Council has been very proactive in addressing climate change. In fact, TCDC is at least five years behind many other councils with adaptation actions relating to coastal hazards. TCDC deliberately chose not to include well-documented local coastal flooding in its last District Plan review.

The only emission reduction actions the Council can point to is a public bus service in Thames and support for walking, cycling and electric charging stations which have been installed throughout New Zealand. Unlike many other councils TCDC has no climate action plan to reduce its own emissions.

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