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Election season is upon us and it is more important than ever that climate action is on the agenda. However despite our best efforts we were unable secure high-level speakers from all the main parties for a climate action debate.

The next best thing is for people who are concerned about climate (like you!) to attend other public election meetings and ask a climate change related question.

The first of these is:
Hon David Parker is Minister for the Environment, Trade and Economic Growth, Attorney-General & Associate Minister for Finance along with senior Labour list candidate Dr Ayesha Verrall will be a public meeting at the Waikanae Baptist Church, 286 Te Moana Rd, Waikanae, Monday 10 August at 7PM.  

Following this there a number of Greypower meetings in late August and Early Sept, which are listed here: https://www.kapitigreypower.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/Public-Meetings-Poster.pdf

Our submission on Kāpiti Coast District Council’s draft sustainable transport plan can be downloaded below. Many thanks to Paul Callister and Jean Fleming for leading the work to prepare it.

In short, the plan is weak on climate action given the urgent need to radically alter how and how much we get about to meet the country’s stated emissions goals. Climate action needs to be central to the vision for transport in Kāpiti but it is mostly absent from the draft vision at present. Hopefully this is fixed before the strategy is finalised. You can read the draft strategy here:

2pm – 3:30pm Sunday 16 August 2020,
Nga Manu Nature Reserve, 4 Nga Manu Reserve Road, Waikanae, or by Zoom.

This event is at the Robin’s Nest function room at Nga Manu Nature Reserve with FREE ADMISSION to the grounds for meeting attendees! Virtual attendance by Zoom is also at option. Message me (jake.roos@gmail.com) and I will provide a link. The link will also be sent to members by email.

We will have special guest speaker Dr Caroline Shaw, a Public Health Medicine Specialist and epidemiologist at the University of Otago. Her current research is at the interface of transport, health and climate change, particularly around the health opportunities offered by decarbonising the transport sector.

Talk synopsis: A public health perspective on transport, health, equity and carbon emissions

Reducing carbon emissions in the transport sector will be one of the great challenges of the next 30 years. The current transport system doesn’t serve many people well. It causes substantial ill-health and is inequitable in the distribution of both the benefits and the harms of the system. Transforming the transport system to become low carbon offers as a unique opportunity to think about the kind of transport system and cities we really want and to create a system that is healthier and fairer. This talk offers a perspective, from a public health viewpoint, on some of the key areas that we need to grapple with to start creating a better transport system that supports us all.

This is also our Annual General Meeting.

Agenda:
1) Receiving the minutes of the previous AGM
2) Chairperson’s report on the society’s activities
3) Treasurer’s report on the society’s finances
4) Election of a new committee
– Chairperson
– Secretary
– Treasurer
– 2 x general executive committee positions

Please contact davidyockney@gmail.com if you would like to nominate yourself or someone else for a committee position, or cast a proxy vote. The current nominees are:
– Jake Roos (chairperson)
– David Yockney (secretary)
– Jean Fleming (general exec)
– Asher Wilson-Goldman (general exec)

Donations (and baking!) for the event gratefully received.

New reports are out giving carbon footprint estimates for the Wellington Region and districts including Kāpiti from 2000-01 to 2018-19.

Kāpiti Coast District’s gross emissions (excluding forestry) rose by 11% over the period while the Region’s emissions declined by 5%. For Kāpiti, the largest increase over the period in absolute terms was from transport, which more than negated reductions in other sectors. Industrial processes and product use (IPPU) had a huge percentage increase but is still a small contributor overall. The full report can be found here: http://www.gw.govt.nz/research-shows-fall-in-greenhouse-gases-over-two-decades-but-a-worrying-rise-in-transport-emissions/

Thank you to everyone who responded to our member survey and your suggestions, which the committee will take into consideration. The consensus from members on how we should priortise actions ranked them in the following order:

1. Pushing climate-friendly projects for economic stimulus funding
2. Working with KCDC and GWRC to ensure climate change is considered in all relevant council decisions
3. Campaigning for councils to get and use powers to regulate emissions
4. Ensuring KCDC achieves its carbon neutrality target for 2025 and promoting low emissions lifestyles (tied)

We are already working on these particularly #1 with our new open letter to KCDC. On #3, there are promising signs that councils will get these powers – the text of the current RMA reform bill now includes it. If all goes well the change will come into effect sometime around the end of 2021. For more on this see our previous blog posts on RMA reform.