Hurunui joins Canterbury councils’ partnership on climate action

Hurunui District Council is getting on board a regional push to work on climate action planning across council borders.

At its meeting this week, Council endorsed the Canterbury Climate Partnership Plan, a regional collaboration of councils across Canterbury to reduce the causes and impacts of climate change on Canterbury’s communities and ecosystems.

As of 7 September 2023, four out of the 10 Canterbury councils had endorsed the Partnership Plan, with the rest expected to endorse the plan by mid-October.

“The risks associated with climate change do not stop at district borders,” Hurunui District Council’s Climate Change Advisor James Smyth said. “The way we respond to the impacts of climate change in Hurunui affects everyone in Canterbury.”

The Partnership Plan was put forward by the Canterbury Climate Working Group, of which Hurunui’s James Smyth is a member, and was developed under the Canterbury Mayoral Forum. CEO Hamish Dobbie and Councillor David Hislop sits on the Climate Change Reference Group, which includes elected members from Canterbury councils and other stakeholders.

“As local government, we play a pivotal role in climate action planning and our actions might cover multiple aspects of council’s work, including roading, water and finance,” Smyth said. “Councils are at different stages of action planning and have differing levels of financial ability to respond. We will only be successful if we work together.”

The implementation of the plan would include incorporating climate actions into councils’ long-term plans.

While the financial implications of the collaboration are still being worked out, Dobbie said this was expected to be set on population-rating base, with larger, more urban councils, such as Christchurch, paying a greater share than smaller, rural councils. Dobbie said these details would come back to Council for further endorsement.

Cr Garry Jackson, who abstained from voting, wanted to see more detail around the weightings of the plan and where the emphasis would lie between having a Canterbury influence on lowering New Zealand’s emissions or building the resilience of Canterbury to drive home a competitive edge in making Canterbury the place to be.

Dobbie said these questions were part of the Mayoral Forum’s considerations. “The opportunity to do better economically is an important part of the work, in line with our ability to work with our communities on adaptation and the need for a more national response on mitigation. These are all parts of the conversation.”

A draft Partnership Plan is expected to be completed by the end of the year and will go back to councils for endorsement.