The St Andrew’s Presbyterian Hastings project, announced in November 2018, aims to reduce energy poverty in a sustainable way for low-income families in the Hawkes Bay.

Project manager, Chris Lambourne, has been invited to speak at an online international climate change event, hosted by the World Council for Churches. The event brings together experts from India, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji to discuss concrete examples of how the church is working to transform local communities.

More than 270 people have attended the first two webinars in the climate change series, with a further 8,500 accessing the webinars online.

“Unfortunately, the impact of climate change is felt first and hardest by disadvantaged people,” explains Chris “which is part of the reason we started this project.”

Response to the project from the community has been overwhelming, says Chris.

“People are blown away by the church’s involvement. Often-times there is a desire to help, but this project gives us a chance to walk the talk and practice what we preach by doing something concrete.”

Initially, the plan was to install a 1 MW solar farm to supply 400 low-income households in the community, but as we’ve engaged with local iwi and hapu, it is clear the need is much bigger, explains Chris.

The project now has an aspirational goal of 10,000 solar panels providing power to 2,500 local homes, and the project has expanded beyond Flaxmere to potentially include low-income communities in Rotorua thanks to the involvement and support of local iwi, explains Chris.

“There is a long way to go, but it has been inspirational to see the local community gathering around and offering practical support to get the project up and running.”

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