Four-year climate action wrangle ends
Declaration signed, but not by the mayor
Acommitment to leadership on climate action has finally been signed for the Coromandel — five years after it was written and at least $100,000 in legal costs — though the signature is not that of the district’s mayor.
The declaration was produced in 2017 and given to Mayor Sandra Goudie in 2019, and 65 leaders signed it.
Council staff had to investigate if it was still available for signing, with Local Government NZ “looking to reboot” its climate change work programme in coming months including deciding whether to “reboot the declaration”.
Mayor Goudie was not prepared to sign the document and did not want to tie the council into an unknown quantum of cost, with concerns about the fiscal impact, council staff said.
Now a councillor has signed it for her. Councillor Martin Rodley was approved at a full Thamescoromandel District Council meeting on Tuesday to sign — Mayor Goudie the lone vote against.
Cr Rodley believed the debate over the declaration had hampered actions over the past few years.
“I’ve seen this as a hindrance to get stuff done.
“Whereas we’ve seen other councils and regional councils develop climate action plans, we’ve heard ‘we don’t want to be reinventing the wheel, and let’s wait until central government decides on its climate change legislation’.
“There will be requirements on councils [from central government] and we have to have plans and ideas in place . . . if we’ve got nothing there, we are sitting ducks.”
Climate lobbyists — confirmed by LGNZ — have always maintained the document is not binding.
“As we’re not a regulatory body, isn’t a binding document,” the
LGNZ spokesman confirmed. “Rather, it’s an opportunity for mayors and councils to publicly state their intentions.”
A TCDC spokesperson said the council would help reduce national greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.
The declaration calls for “ambitious action” and Hauraki Coromandel Climate Action (HCCA) said this is what it wanted to see.
The group successfully challenged an April 2019 decision of Mayor Goudie and the previous council to not sign up to this in the declaration.
“Our members are justifiably proud of finally achieving this outcome, which is due in large part to our activism and commitment,” said Denis Tegg, chairman of HCCA.
“HCCA is also pleased and relieved that most current TCDC councillors have not tolerated Mayor Goudie’s outrageous attempt to thwart their explicit direction to her that the declaration must be signed.”
“The council has wasted over $100,000 on legal costs and a huge amount of staff time, and climate action has been delayed by three precious years, which the district and the planet can ill afford in a climate emergency,” he said.
Thames ward councillor Robyn Sinclair said the legal costs and delays were “absolutely regrettable”.
Sinclair, whose job entails auditing industry and councils nationwide to help them reduce their carbon footprint, said councillors had never seen the final bill for the costs of council defending the mayor’s stance.
There was an offer to settle out of court by signing the declaration, which would have saved on hearing costs, but the settlement offer was declined by the council. A full breakdown of costs is still being assessed, the council said.
But it was more than has so far been set aside for climate action at the council. TCDC’S Sustainability and Resilience Group (SARG) was established in March 2020 to formulate a greenhouse gases emission reduction plan for council’s emissions and was allocated a budget
of $50,000.
Councillors Rodley and Sinclair are proposing a $200,000 budget in the draft annual plan and longterm plan to employ someone to write a plan for reducing the council’s carbon footprint and save costs.
At present, said Rodley, “There’s nothing specific for those actions. There’s no specific person advising. We need that resource to start to get some action happening.”
Sinclair has worked for New Zealand industries including the apple, kiwifruit, pipfruit and wine sectors and Wellington region to investigate their carbon footprint. The work was driven by the former Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in anticipation of export markets like supermarket chain Tesco requiring certain standards to be met.
She said attempts to lead by example on the Coromandel were thwarted by having no information to share on what the council had done. “I want a clear roadmap for what we’re going to do here, now and in the longer term when we need to replace a wastewater treatment plant, for example. But we have no policy.
“It needs to be across the whole organisation so we can be leaders. If you are a small business in Whangamata or Thames, you’d be able to copy what we’ve done as an organisation.”
The greenhouse gases emission reduction plan requested by TCDC’S sustainability group was prepared by Envirostrat Ltd.
The group has also engaged the Waikato Local Authorities Shared Services (WLASS) Energy & Carbon Management Programme (2019-2022), which supports participating councils with their carbon reduction projects, to assist with the development of a corporate carbon road map.
The roadmap will set out each of the emission sources identified in the GHD plan, model those out to 2030, and indicate the likely impact on our current level of emissions of specific carbon reduction initiatives that may be undertaken.
Based on this work, a Corporate Greenhouse Gases Emission Reduction Plan will be produced due in April-may this year, council staff said.