Southland's regional council to discuss its own net-zero greenhouse ... - Stuff

Southland's regional council to discuss its own net-zero greenhouse gas emission target | Stuff.co.nz

Southland's regional council to discuss its own net-zero greenhouse gas emission target

Environment Southland’s Climate Change Sub-committee will discuss whether there is a need for the regional council to set an organisational net-zero greenhouse gas emission target at a meeting this week.

The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting says internal work happening on adaption pathway and emissions reduction planning will be the subject of a full council workshop on Wednesday morning.

This will explore the need for an organisational net-zero greenhouse gas emission target, and following that discussion the committee, which is chaired by councillor Maurice Rodway, may wish to make a formal recommendation to the Strategy and Policy Committee.

The agenda says 33 [42%] of New Zealand councils had publicly set a carbon-neutral or net-zero target.

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The majority have aligned with the international goals of net-zero by 2050, however, some councils have elected to set earlier targets of, for example, 2030.

These targets cover a range of activities, from declaring a net-zero target for the organisations operations, to a city or regional based target for the wider community to also be aiming for net-zero.

Of importance is the organisation “walking the talk” for its community and leading by example with an operational net-zero target.

How a target is set depends on the type of organisation and can focus on things like reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, energy reduction and overall behaviour change to become a climate-friendly organisation, the agenda says.

In 2019 the regional council voted not to declare a climate change emergency, and instead gave the green-light for a climate action plan