Council’s taskforce head urges community buy-in
The Nelson City Council may have “been pretty quiey” on its climate change response of late, but that was about to change, the head of the council's climate change taskforce Aaron Stallard said.
The council was preparing to lock in “meaningful action” on measures like reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, and the needed help from all sectors of the community to do that, he said.
The council would consult with the public on its first Climate Change Strategy this year, which was due to canvass issues including community emissions reductions targets.
The strategy was being drawn up with help from community members and experts (the Climate Change Advisory Group), and council staff were exploring opportunities for further public involvement, Stallard said.
Community members could help set the rules around things like urban planning to help reduce emissions; supporting a shift away from urban sprawl to higher-density living close to where people “worked and played”, he said. Stallard hoped to see “all possibilities considered in addition to traditional consultation”.
That might include the formation of a continued community advisory group, a community representation on a governance group overseeing the implementation of the council’s climate work, or a citizens’ assembly as done by Wellington City Council and Watercare in Auckland, he said. A pop-up centre for consultation on local climate action to complement council’s work would “be gold”, akin to the What If Whakatū/Nelson Make/Shift Space, which hosted talks and workshops on ideas to reinvigorate the city centre, he said. “As a councillor, I would invite anyone to start getting ideas and then quantifying them as much as possible, who will be affected and so on.”
Last month, the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum urged the council to set yearly community reductions targets of at least 7% to 2030, that aligned with the Paris Agreement commitment of a global average temperature rise limit of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Council group manager strategy and communications, Nicky McDonald, said the council would consider the issue of community targets as part of the strategy.
The strategy would “belong to the entire community including iwi, business, community groups, government agencies and individuals”, she said. “The strategy will focus on setting direction, defining priorities, and outlining the broad approach we can all take to building the resilience of the natural environment.”