Council urged to commit to emissions cuts
The Nelson City Council is being urged to commit to yearly greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions that align with a global average temperature rise limit of 1.5C above preindustrial levels.
Volunteer organisation Nelson Tasman Climate Forum said GHG emissions reductions so far in Nelson were well below the levels required to stand a chance of remaining under the 1.5C international commitment in the Paris Agreement – considered necessary to avoid more severe climate impacts.
The body’s emissions targets group said reductions of at least 7% a year were needed in long-lived greenhouse gases in New Zealand, up to 2030. The group based its calculations on data from the UN’s Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change, which showed global net emissions had to fall by 43% by 2030 to have a 50% chance of remaining under 1.5C of warming.
Group member Lindsay Wood said reducing transport emissions was key to speeding up the region’s emissions reductions.
Statistics New Zealand figures showed 93% of household emissions in Nelson came from transport.
Figures from the council showed the introduction of an electric bus fleet in Nelson last year – while a vast improvement - amounted to annual reductions approaching 2% of the net total Nelson emissions, Wood said. Seven per cent annual reductions “only guarantees to get us half way” to avoiding irreversible tipping points into more rapid heating, more severe weather and faster sea level rise, he said.
Reducing single occupancy of cars was among actions the climate forum recommended the city council prioritise.
"If you just look at any of our highways, 70% of the traffic is single occupancy cars,“Wood said.
"If one in 10 people were to share a ride, then you'd suddenly find that that's 10% of our emissions dropped off pretty well. If you get two people to share a ride that's our congestion gone as well, and we don't need to build a highway or overbridge, or whatever we've talked about doing."
Wood recommended increasing buses (whether electric or diesel) and giving them priority in traffic, separating out roadways from cycleways, and “decarbonising” the construction of houses.
The council should produce an “emissions dashboard” for the public showing regional progress on the targets, which the group said would provide an incentive for people to reduce emissions.
Council group manager, strategy and communications, Nicky McDonald, said the council was working on ways it could use different strands of data to provide the community with clearer and more regularly updated information about greenhouse gas emissions levels. “We agree with the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum that accurate and timely monitoring of emissions is vital and this work could take the form of a regularly updated emissions dashboard for Nelson,” she said.
The council website was being updated to include Nelson’s GHG community emissions. She said the council was committed to emission reduction targets for its own activities in line with government targets. Interim “stepping-stone” targets had been put in place to reach the net zero target by 2050.
The council was currently collecting data to develop community GHG inventory reports for the last three financial years to track the reduction or increase of emissions in each sector report. It anticipated GHG emissions for waste had reduced considerably due to infrastructure improvements at the York Valley landfill, such as methane collection and flaring.
McDonald said the Statistics NZ figures showed transport emissions for petrol and diesel on-road vehicles accounted for around 50% of the sector’s emissions with the other 50% from off-road, marine, electric vehicles, electricity used by electric vehicles and aviation emissions.
Emissions target group member, David Ayre said asking people to reduce emissions by 2030 was "too far out and too nebulous" for most people. A dashboard showing regional progress against yearly targets would put emissions generation "front and centre" of people's minds, he said.