In a move playing to the urgency of climate change, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has agreed to develop the region’s first Emissions Reduction Plan.

This was the final decision by the Council in the last Regional Council meeting before October’s local elections, supporting a path to regional carbon neutrality by 2050.

Regional Council chief executive James Palmer said the net zero carbon goal by 2050 would not be easy, but could be reached through a plan of targets and measures supported by strong stakeholder input, cross-council collaboration, and community buy-in.

“Our Regional Councillors have agreed to support the development of a Hawke’s Bay Emissions Reduction Plan by July 2023, in time to inform our next round of council Long Term Plans,” said Mr Palmer.

“All Hawke’s Bay councils are already working on climate adaptation strategies, and we’ll keep these work programmes moving. The job of emissions reduction is seen as harder because it will require systemic changes over a longer time period. However, we need to play our part in national and international plans to reduce emissions. The benefits will be a more resilient Hawke’s Bay community and a future fit environment for generations to come.” he added.

The Council supported establishing a core working group of local councils, tāngata whenua representatives, businesses and other agencies, to develop Hawke’s Bay’s Emissions Reduction Plan. The group would systematically work through possible actions from the national plan and assess these for relevance to Hawke’s Bay, and their impact on regional emissions. Key themes for the work would be building and construction, transport, agriculture, equitable transition, planning and infrastructure, working with nature, waste, and housing.

The councillors also received the first community carbon footprint report for the region, and for each of the four city and district councils. The regional report shows a 20% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions between 2018 and 2020, mostly linked to increased forestry carbon drawdown and reduced stock numbers. A 3% reduction in gross emissions was observed.

“Encouragingly, the 20% net reduction shows we have started on the right trajectory, noting that drought may have contributed. The overall gross emissions reductions are even more positive when you consider the region’s 4% population increase over the same time, so we’re growing our economy but also seeing lower emissions per person,” said Mr Palmer.

The carbon footprints set a baseline for an emissions reduction plan to improve upon.

“There are many messages for us in these reports, such as the need for us to continue planting initiatives and protect native areas of vegetation for the carbon drawdown benefits. Our support for farm environmental management plans also helps reduce on-farm emissions.”

Emissions from sheep and non-dairy cattle are decreasing. A large decrease in coal use was also observed as more renewable energy sources are adopted.

The Hawke’s Bay Carbon Community Footprint report is here.

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