Green light for climate collaboration with Danes

Concerns over coronavirus have kept Danish climate delegates from visiting Nelson, but an agreement to collaborate on climate change action will go ahead.

The visit was arranged after a previous Danish delegation to Nelson in August last year, and was to be an opportunity to sign ‘‘a document that outlined their objectives in continuing to work together’’ on climate change initiatives.

In an extraordinary meeting of the Nelson City Council on Thursday, Nelson mayor Rachel Reese said the delay was ‘‘disappointing but, I think, very understandable’’.

‘‘We discussed this morning the importance of the principles of the collaboration document, and they’re very keen for that to go ahead . . . because that will allow us in the interim period, while we can’t get together across the globe, we can continue to work on our collaboration.’’

The council voted 11-1 to have Reese sign the agreed terms of collaboration with the Danish group on behalf of the council.

Councillor Tim Skinner voted against the decision over concerns that the document would commit the council to future spending, in particular towards the construction of a physical building for a Climatorium. ‘‘Are we not just taking the workload of central Government, Niwa et cetera, and putting it on to the ratepayer?’’ he asked.

However, council chief executive Pat Dougherty said the document did not promise any spending on any projects

‘‘When I read these sorts of documents, I’m looking for exactly [that] . . . and no, it’s not.

‘‘If, out of the collaboration, there are some good ideas that we think are worth bringing to the council through the Long Term Plan, and the council thinks they’re a good idea, then yes, they may add to our workload and total budgets,’’ Dougherty said.

‘‘But in this document itself, there is no commitment to any additional spend.’’

Council manager of strategy Mark Tregurtha said that despite wording in the document about ‘‘exploring the opportunity to establish a Climatorium in Nelson . . . so the parties understand what is required when setting up and running a Climatorium’’, the document itself did not commit the council to building a physical structure or spending any money.

‘‘That clause is in there as a demonstration that the Danes are willing to share information on what they’ve achieved.’’

Reese said the collaboration agreement was an important step because ‘‘no-one can do this alone’’.

‘‘Whether Nelson will have a southern hemisphere Climatorium, I don’t know . . . we’ll wait and see.’’

The relationship between the Nelson council and the Climatorium began in 2018, when Wakatu Incorporation invited Reese on a trip to Denmark to find out about the Lemvig-based project.