Horizons votes to reduce emissions

Wider Manawatu¯ councillors have decided to walk the talk when it comes to climate change by aiming to reduce regional council emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.

But the council’s former chairman, who was ousted after spreading a climate denial video, voted against the move.

Horizons Regional Council voted yesterday to adopt the target and put $80,000 towards understanding its emissions inventory.

The push comes after moves by the council to better understand climate change’s effects on the wider region, which covers Tararua, Horowhenua, Manawatu¯, Rangitı¯kei and Horowhenua.

The area’s mayors have signed a climate-change memorandum of understanding, committing them to dealing with the worst effects and working together to ensure a sustainable future.

The council also issues a regular report on the state of the environment and how it could be affected by climate change, and is consulting on what areas are most important to protect from those effects.

Its latest move is in line with the Government target under the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions by 30 per cent below gross from 2021-2030.

Horizons strategy and regulation group manager Nic Peet said staff had been doing work on the council’s climate footprint, but knew councillors wanted an emissions inventory.

There was no legal requirement for the council to report emissions or do anything about them, but other councils have emissions targets.

Horizons could set a more ambitions target, but it made sense to know the challenge in front of it first, Peet said.

Creating an inventory of how the council made emissions meant spending $80,000 of unbudgeted money, which would have to come from reserves.

The only councillor to vote against both the 30 per cent target and using the money for an emissions inventory was

Manawatu¯-rangitı¯kei councillor Bruce Gordon.

He said there was no debate climate change was happening, but there was about what was causing it.

There needed to be a ‘‘measured approach’’, he said.

He also pointed to a presentation to the council last term from William Partridge, a Hunterville farmer with an agricultural science degree who said in 2017 the sun, not carbon dioxide or man-made emissions, caused climate change

That stance is nothing new for Gordon, the council’s chairman from 2011 until he was deposed last year by Rachel Keedwell.

He previously told Stuff one volcano eruption put more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere than people ever had, contradicting the the US Geological Survey. Although all other councillors agreed to the 30 per cent target, a slim majority approved spending the $80,000.

Councillor Fiona Gordon said the money would have to be spent sometime and sooner was better than later.

‘‘We are well behind the eightball.’’

There was no debate climate change was happening, but there was about what was causing it. Bruce Gordon

Manawatu¯-rangitı¯kei councillor