Climate Commission chair Dr Rod Carr shared the commission’s views – and some personal ones – with the Climate Action Committee this week.

Climate Action Committee chair Jennifer Nickel said councillors welcomed the opportunity to pick Dr Carr’s brains to navigate the complex topic that is responding to climate change.

Councillors asked questions about agriculture, soil, riparian planting, forestry, shipping, aviation, energy, biosecurity, the role of local government and supporting capacity of iwi Māori, among other things.

“What really stood out for me was the reiteration of how there are so many positive opportunities for our communities to be had from a rapid transitioning to a low emissions economy, in particular around health and avoiding future costs,” said Cr Nickel.

“I’m really enthusiastic about future potential for ecosystems services payments for landowners who protect our natural habitats.”

Dr Carr attended the committee to share the commission’s draft recommendations to the Government for the development of its second emissions reduction plan, and which the council will submit on.

The Government must deliver the second emissions reduction plan for New Zealand next year. The commission’s advice focuses on identifying critical gaps in action, and where existing actions need to be urgently strengthened and accelerated to meet the second emissions budget (2026-2030) on New Zealand’s path of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and reductions in methane of 24-47 per cent by 2050.

Cr Nickel said councillors were particularly interested in the commission’s views on agriculture, soils and forestry as they are identified in the council’s Climate Action Roadmap as pathways to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

Agriculture is a key economic sector for the Waikato, yet it is also this region’s greatest source of emissions. The next biggest sources are the transport and energy sectors.

Dr Carr told the councillors it was important to get on board with new innovations to “reduce the emissions from agriculture”.

“The world is already on that pathway through breeding, feeding and feed supplements,” said Dr Carr. “We're already seeing in Europe and parts of North America significant reductions and biogenic methane associated with protein production – and we need to get on board, or we will be left behind.”

The councillors were also keen to hear from Dr Carr about the commission’s views on forestry, given the region's large exotic and native forestry contribution and as the last Waikato regional greenhouse gas inventory of 2018/19 showed Taupō and Thames-Coromandel districts to be in carbon credit due to high levels of forestry.

Dr Carr said the current settings of the emissions trading scheme (ETS), which encouraged and allowed an unlimited amount of forestry sequestration, had set New Zealand on a path where gross emissions would be much higher for much longer because it was cheaper to plant pine for carbon credits than it would cost the economy to decarbonise gross emissions reductions. For this reason, he said, the commission was proposing that central government sets future gross emissions targets.

In response to questioning about planting by landowners, he said the commission viewed sequestration from riparian planting and small woodlots as something that could now be reasonable to include in the ETS as good satellite imagery, since about 2008, meant it could be shown as “truly additional, measurable, permanent and enforceable”.

Dr Carr acknowledged there would be stakeholders who wanted the sequestration from soils to also be included in the ETS, but the commission currently had no view on that due to the absence of robust science and evidence over time.

“The flipside of that will be … what do you do about the 600 million tonnes a year of soil that is lost into our rivers and near shores if you're going to give people credit for erosion control and avoidance? Does it mean you put a levy on those who having cleared land, allow it to slide into our rivers and sea?

“So always stakeholders will tell you what they should get paid for, but there is a very short line of people offering to be charged.”

Deputy chair Tipa Mahuta spoke to Dr Carr about her concerns about expectations that iwi Māori should keep their land and resources locked up in a natural state as their contribution to climate change instead of seizing economic opportunities.

Dr Carr said: “When we come back to the whole question of guardianship of native forest outside the crown state, the Commission's view is you want to be very careful about using the emissions trading scheme as the financial reward for that, and part of that is the emissions trading scheme will go out of business at some point as we reduce gross emissions, which we must do.”

Cr Nickel said the regional council had a big job ahead of it to continue to reduce its own corporate emissions footprint; help communities adapt to climate change, which would be in partnership with local authorities and iwi Māori and not a one-size-fits-all approach; and help those who wish to reduce their emissions, including through efficient and effective regulation of mitigating climate change such as consenting for renewable energy industries.

Dr Rodd Carr’s presentation and discussion with the Climate Action Committee can be viewed at the start of the meeting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L7d9Ya9S0Q

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