Andy Foster — Your City Councillor

ONSLOW-WESTERN

Environment

The evidence is clear. We all have a real issue that needs to be dealt with. We humans are the cause of that problem. The effects are already being noticed and are expected to become significant within most of our lifetimes. The message is that we need to act now.

Although we are a small country our emissions per capita are among the highest in the world. We have a proud record of boxing way above our weight when it comes to many international issues. To do this in Climate Change we must walk the talk too.

As a City Council we’ve adopted an ‘aspirational target’ of carbon neutrality. I’m part of a working party of councillors and officers looking at what we actually do.

Opportunities include:

Council’s emissions:

· World class green Council buildings – for example during the recent maintenance closure of Karori Pool changes were made that will reduce energy use by roughly 50%. Major opportunity is in the upgrade and redevelopment of Council’s 2300 housing rental units.

· Council vehicle fleet choice, provision of cycles for downtown work.

· Council’s purchase decisions supporting sustainable options

· Organisational travel planning

· Carbon Credits

· Sustainable waste disposal

Community Emissions

· Urban planning is critical. Recent individual evidence suggests that a household on the outskirts of a city will consume roughly double the energy of a similar residence in the central city, with most of the difference being transport related.

· Transport. Work with Greater Wellington and public transport operators to improve efficiency and attractiveness of bus and rail services and walk-ability and cycle-ability of the city.

· Making Wellington a Centre of Excellence in sustainable technology and research by partnering with research institutions, universities, and businesses. This is exactly the kind of model envisaged by the Wellington Regional Strategy.

· Providing information. Partnering with organisations like EECA and Ministry for the Environment and Universities to provide practical and non proprietal information about what individuals and businesses can do to reduce emissions.

· Encouraging vegetation on private land, on road reserves looked after by the public and on marginal farmland particularly in the Makara area as a carbon sink. Supporting that with pest control.

· Working with other cities and Greater Wellington to plan where any future wind farms might best be placed. That would give everyone more certainty about where is ok and where is not.

 

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Climate Change

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