Waikato Regional Council continues to reduce its core corporate emissions, recording a 38.5% reduction on last year’s figure.
At yesterday’s Climate Action Committee, a presentation on the council’s eighth year of Toitū carbonreduce certification showed that its corporate emissions for 2023/24 was 1,195 tCO2e, – a 29% reduction against the baseline year (2016/17) and 38.5% lower than the previous year.
“The target for 2023/2024 was a 45% reduction, and the Council would have met that target if not for a restock of diesel for flood pump generators and having to run diesel pumps for five months during a pump station upgrade,” said Climate Action Committee Chair, Jennifer Nickel.
Cr Nickel says the Council is confident it will meet its target of a 68% reduction in emissions by 2030, despite challenging conditions.
“The previous year, you’ll see we had unusually high rainfall which led to a massive increase in flood pumping hours and corresponding increases in electricity and diesel.
“But we know what we can control from an emissions perspective, so we’ll continue to decarbonise our vehicle fleet and investigate energy efficiency opportunities with regards to our infrastructure, particularly when it comes to our flood protection assets.”
In 2023/24, the council’s most significant emissions sources were diesel, electricity and gas (62%, 11% and 12% of operational emissions respectively).
Compared to 2022/23, emissions from diesel were down 17%; emissions from electricity were down 58%; emissions from gas were up 43%; and emissions from domestic travel were down 48%. Including public transport emissions there was a slight increase (1.5%) in emissions overall from 8,020 tCO2e to 8144 tCO2e.
Cr Nickel says progress is being made on Council’s Te Āki Tūroa | Nature + Plan, which aims to offset the council’s hard to reduce emissions, and public transport emissions, to net zero by 2050.
The Council is looking at the feasibility of three planting restoration projects on Council-owned land.
It’s estimated that to achieve corporate emissions neutrality, the council would have to plant less than two hectares per year for 20 years from 2025; for Council corporate and public transport emissions neutrality, it would have to plant 7.7-12 hectares per year for 20 years from 2025.
To better meet the needs of stakeholders for climate risk information, the committee recommended a draft climate risk report to be completed by the end of the year.
The report will provide an overview of regional climate change hazards and risks, which were identified in collaboration with territorial authorities, iwi and other stakeholders, and provide the foundation for setting regional priorities.
The Council says it will continue to build quantitative data on climate change hazards and risk so that information is available to others to assist understanding of exposure and risk.
Cr Nickel says the committee also had a presentation by Taranaki Offshore Partnership about its plans to develop a large-scale offshore wind farm along the Waikato’s west coast.
“The Waikato could really benefit from work like what was described in the presentation, and it prompted some robust discussions about the need for national certainty in the legislative space in the transition to a low emissions economy, and how projects such as these would enable economic development opportunities and training for new skills and jobs,” she said.
