Council progresses climate action

Waikato Regional Council continues to reduce its core corporate emissions and progress partnerships with territorial authorities, iwi and industry on responses to climate change.

At yesterday’s Climate Action Committee, a presentation on the council’s eighth year of Toitū carbonreduce certification showed that its corporate emissions for 2023/24 was 1,195 tCO₂e, a 29 per cent reduction against the baseline year (2016/17) and 38.5 per cent lower than the previous year.

The target for 2023/2024 was a 45 per cent reduction, and the council would have met that target if not for a restock of diesel for flood pump generators and having to run diesel pumps for five months during a pump station upgrade.

Climate Action Committee Chair Jennifer Nickel says the council is confident it will meet its target of a 68 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030, despite challenging conditions.

“The previous year, you’ll see we had unusually high rainfall which led to a massive increase in flood pumping hours and corresponding increases in electricity and diesel,” says Cr Nickel.

“But we know what we can control from an emissions perspective, so we’ll continue to decarbonise our vehicle fleet and investigate energy efficiency opportunities with regards to our infrastructure, particularly when it comes to our flood protection assets.”

In 2023/24, the council’s most significant emissions sources were diesel, electricity and gas (62 per cent, 11 per cent and 12 per cent of operational emissions respectively).

Compared to 2022/23, emissions from diesel were down 17 per cent; emissions from electricity were down 58 per cent; emissions from gas were up 43 per cent; and emissions from domestic travel were down 48 per cent. Including public transport emissions there was a slight increase (1.5 per cent) in emissions overall from 8,020 tCO₂e to 8144 tCO₂e.

Cr Nickel says progress is being made on the council’s Te Āki Tūroa | Nature + Plan, which aims to offset the council’s hard to reduce emissions, and public transport emissions, to net zero by 2050.

The council is looking at the feasibility of three planting restoration projects on council-owned land.

It’s estimated that to achieve corporate emissions neutrality, the council would have to plant less than 2 hectares per year for 20 years from 2025; for council corporate and public transport emissions neutrality, it would have to plant 7.7-12 hectares per year for 20 years from 2025.

To better meet the needs of stakeholders for climate risk information, the committee recommended a draft climate risk report to be completed by the end of the year. 

The report will provide an overview of regional climate change hazards and risks, which were identified in collaboration with territorial authorities, iwi and other stakeholders, and provide the foundation for setting regional priorities. 

The council will continue to build up quantitative data on climate change hazards and risk so that information is available to others to assist understanding of exposure and risk.

Cr Nickel says the committee also had a presentation by Taranaki Offshore Partnership about its plans to develop a large-scale offshore wind farm along the Waikato’s west coast.

“The Waikato could really benefit from work like what was described in the presentation, and it prompted some robust discussions about the need for national certainty in the legislative space in the transition to a low emissions economy, and how projects such as these would enable economic development opportunities and training for new skills and jobs.”