08 May 2007

Major climate change milestone for Kapiti Coast

The Kapiti Coast District Council has completed the third major milestone in managing greenhouse gas emissions through the Communities for Climate Protection® - New Zealand (CCP®-NZ) Programme.

Mayor Alan Milne received the Milestone Award last week at a conference hosted by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives – Australia/ New Zealand (ICLEI-A/NZ) and the Ministry for the Environment.

“There are five stages or milestones to be achieved,” Alan Milne said. “The first was developing a greenhouse gas inventory and forecast for the Council’s operations and services. The emphasis was on the Council at this stage but the community issues were also being taken into account. The next milestone was establishing and agreeing an emissions reduction goal.

“This Milestone Three Award is for the development and adoption of a local action plan for the Community, to complement the Council Action Plan, completed in 2006. It endorses a strategy that outlines how the Council will support the community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by first stabilising them at 2001 levels by 2010 and then a further reduction of 20% by 2015.

“Milestone 4 is the implementation of these action plans, moving towards carbon neutral communities, businesses and homes and that was the message from the ‘Accelerating Now’ Conference held in Melbourne last week.”

Mr Milne attended the conference with other local leaders from all over New Zealand and Australia who gathered to share innovative and practical initiatives to actively reduce greenhouse gas emissions within their communities.

“The concept of carbon neutrality is backed up by last week’s international report stating that we have eight years in which to stabilise our greenhouse gas emissions to ensure we limit our global warming to 2ºC.

“International scientists agree this is the threshold beyond which the more extreme impacts of climate change will begin,” Mr Milne said.

ENDS

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