The Climate Action Committee yesterday endorsed reviewing the council’s Climate Action Roadmap approved by the previous council in 2020.

The current roadmap outlines the legislative, economic and social context for the council’s climate action response and highlights areas that represent the biggest challenges and opportunities in the council’s sphere of influence.

It is used to guide planning and delivery of all council activities, and stakeholders can use it to consider how they might work with council to mitigate impacts on the climate and increase resilience.

Chair Jennifer Nickel says the review, to be workshopped by the council, will incorporate key changes since the roadmap was published, such as to national legislation and operational policies, updated science and the new council’s climate commitments, and incorporate any feedback and learnings since 2020.

"We've learned so much over the past three years that I believe it's very timely now at the start of a new triennium to update the roadmap to continue to demonstrate leadership in this space and take the opportunity to align with the new council's upcoming strategic direction, which is currently open for feedback via an online survey until March 6.”

Phase two of the Waikato Regional Climate Risk Assessment is underway, which seeks to rate and shortlist the risks identified (in phase one of the project) across a range of timeframes and climate scenarios.

The committee heard that the recent cyclones had affected staff capacity to work on the project, as they’d been pulled away to work on the hazard response with Civil Defence Emergency Management.

This meant a revised plan to stagger the delivery of the assessment, with the current focus on risks to natural environment.

“What these recent weather events have shown us is that understanding our climate change risk exposure is vitally important to planning for the resilience of our communities,” says Cr Nickel.

Meanwhile, Waikato Regional Council is on track to meet its emission reduction target of 68 per cent from its 2016/17 base year by 2030.

The council has successfully completed its sixth audit of its corporate emissions under the Toitū carbonreduce programme.

Excluding public transport emissions, the council has achieved a 44 per cent reduction in emissions against the base year, although the 2021/22 results show a slight increase of 0.5 per cent in emissions compared to 2020/21.

“In the previous years, there were significant reductions in air travel and fuel consumption due to various changes in behaviour and activities linked to responding to the pandemic,” says Cr Nickel.

“Over the next year, we’ll have to take a long hard look at where we can further reduce emissions as the unprecedented run of wet weather means our flood pumps are working overtime, contributing to increased use of electricity, petrol and diesel. These pumps are vital and run to agreed levels of service so we can't turn them off, but for now we can make sure they're running as efficiently as possible.

“It's also great to keep expanding our awareness through the carbonreduce programme by covering emissions from public transport, which is a service we contract out. This is in line with the council's recent annual plan decision to look into electric bus depot options in Waipā, so we are really starting to open up future opportunities for improvements in this space.”

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