Hawke’s Bay Regional Council says a report showing that regional greenhouse gas emissions crept up in 2019 reinforces that bold and decisive action is required to combat climate change.

A Statistics New Zealand report released today shows that regional greenhouse gas emissions across the country rose in 2019.

In Hawke’s Bay, emissions rose 1.2 percent, driven by agricultural emissions. These were partially offset by a fall in household emissions – the majority of which are transport emissions.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chief executive James Palmer says the data underscores the importance of the community coming together and working to reduce emissions.

“Our regional economic and community wellbeing is completely dependent on a stable climate, it’s what we are known for and it’s what we love about living in Hawke’s Bay.”

“But this also means we have everything to lose from more droughts, floods, fires and heatwaves. While we can’t stabilise the world’s climate, we can make our contribution. This makes it even more disappointing to see that emissions rose in 2019. We are long past the time when we needed to see our emissions reducing.

“In order to achieve a sustained, long-term cut in emissions, we need to work together as a community, and take bold action,” says Mr Palmer.

“The regional council has started the journey with initiatives like working with landowners to significantly scale up tree planting on erodible land across the region, and next year will launch an on-demand public transport service, but we know we need to do much more with our community”

The Regional Council will soon appoint a climate change ambassador to bring together other councils and key organisations in the region to form a regional climate action strategy for the region to be carbon neutral by 2050, he says.

“We encourage our community to be a part of this action to help the environment, and to contact us with ideas, feedback and any questions,” he said.

To read the Stats NZ report, go here. Check out the Regional Council’s climate action hub to find what you can do take climate action and reduce emissions.

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