From the Offices of the Mayor of Auckland City Dick Hubbard and the Mayor of Waitakere City Bob Harvey
MEDIA RELEASE
May 6 2007

Climate Change – The Monster In The Living Room

Mayors and councillors from across New Zealand have returned from an Australasian conference on climate change reinvigorated about the need for serious action.

Each of the councils who attended the ICELI Oceania conference in Melbourne is already taking steps on key issues such as public transport, waste reduction and the promotion of green and sustainable buildings. However, the message from businesses ranging from energy to insurance companies was clear: councils need to intensify their efforts to ensure the survival of the planet.

Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard said the unanimous message was that councils had to up the ante.

“Carbon pricing is imminent like it or not and once there is a price on carbon the need for all of us to move quickly and effectively will sharply increase,” he said.

“We must be prepared. Not only must we measure our own emissions as councils but also know what each sector emits. Then we can act collaboratively on reduction.”

Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey said political leadership was absolutely critical.

“Those of us in local government have to show leadership, to practise what we preach, so we do not ask more of our communities than we are prepared to do ourselves,” he said.

The Mayors both said they believed their colleagues across the Auckland region agreed community education was a key role for local government.

“We need to provide people in the community with simple steps that each individual can take. Then it doesn’t seem so overwhelming and when all of these individual actions are put together the cumulative effect can be surprisingly powerful,” they said.

Mayors Harvey and Hubbard were invited to be keynote speakers at the ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) Conference in Melbourne.

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