Minute Item Attachments of Puketāpapa Local Board

Puketāpapa Local Board

24 April 2014

Puketāpapa Local Board Feedback on

Auckland’s Energy Resilience and Low Carbon Action Plan

April 2014

For further information please contact:

Harry Doig

Deputy Chair, Environment and Sustainability Portfolio Holder

Mobile 021627811 | Email: harry.doig@aucklandcouncilgovt.nz

The Puketāpapa Local Board (hereafter the Board) welcomes the draft Low Carbon Auckland discussion document. The Board notes that cities and other local authorities around the world are rising to the challenge of address climate change and adopting ambitious transformation plans^{^[1]}. A low carbon future goes hand in hand with our quest to be the world’s most liveable city and as such, we should not be constrained by the targets set by central government and instead look to build more ambition into our targets and plans.

We recommend Auckland emerge as a leader on climate change in New Zealand and join ranks with other cities around the world that are getting worldwide recognition for their efforts in this area.^{^[2]}

1. Do you agree with and support the aims and aspirations of this plan?

Strongly agree.

The Board looks forward to finding ways to get communities involved and feel ownership of these transformations so that we are enabling a paradigm shift in attitudes towards carbon-intensive lifestyles. Local Boards play a key role in ensuring we take the community along with us so that we can ensure the success of our policies.

2. Which of the five transformations are most important to Puketāpapa Local Board?
(Please rank 1-5)

We have ranked the transformations below based on priority to Puketapapa

1. Transforming the way we travel (Top priority)

2. Transforming to Zero waste (Second highest priority)

Transforming our built environment & green infrastructure (Second equal highest priority)

3. Transforming the way we use and generate energy (Medium priority)

4. Transforming forestry, agriculture & natural carbon assets (Low priority)

3. Do these areas of transformation identify the key issues?

If No, what issues do you think we have missed?

The transformation areas identified covers a lot of the key issues but fails to clearly identify the interventions needed to target large industries. Emissions from industries (energy consumption and industrial processes) contribute approximately 34% of Auckland’s emissions and it would be more useful to have a work stream that specifically targets industries instead of mainstreaming these actions into the other areas. This will communicate clearly that we are targeting problem areas and not shying away from confronting the hard issues with industries and corporations.

4. The plan identifies a number of targets that we aim to achieve, including a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040. Do you think we have identified appropriate targets?

If No, what targets do you believe we should set?

The overall target should not be constrained by the central government target and thus could be much higher. We understand that more ambitious abatement pathways have been modelled during the consideration of setting a 40% reduction by 2031. We believe we can afford to be more ambitious with our overall goal and the flow on effect of that will be reviewing and raising the individual goals that contribute to this.

Explore setting some targets that specifically address emissions from the industrial sector. These can go hand in hand with a programme of incentives which Auckland Council and the central government should consider committing resources towards in order to make a substantial reduction in this section of our emissions profile.

We have set targets around travel demand management but intend to measure this only by counting the number of public transport trips per person per year. We would need more frequent bus services in order to deliver this. It will be good to identify some milestones so we can account for progress towards these targets we set. This will include developing a good baseline (current statistics) to measure the success of our future targets against.

We commend innovations such as a warrant of fitness scheme for rental properties and note that this is proposed to be rolled out as a trial. Where this is successful, it would be useful to consider setting a target for this in the near future.

5. Do you believe we have identified the right actions? If No, what else do you think we could be doing?

Continuing the discussion with industries and developing a wishlist incentive programme that can identify what we could achieve if we had the resources.

6. How should these actions in the plan be funded?

We recommend that officers prepare a funding options paper that explores all potential funding avenues. This will assist in facilitating a more considered response to this question.

The funding options paper should consider potential savings/avoided costs.

7. Do you know of any individuals or organisations that are leading the way?

There are some strong local groups in our area with real potential to be partners in delivering these aspirations. Recognising that climate change affects all spheres of life, we urge officers to approach a range of organisations including those whose work may initially appear irrelevant, and discuss ways that they can mainstream some of these targets into their work.

Here are some of the key groups and potential partners in Puketapapa that should be approached:

- Auckland Regional Migrant Services Trust (ARMS)

- Migrant Action Trust

- Roskill Together

- Roskill Community Network

- Mt Roskill Business and Community Association

- Local churches

8. Who do you think should be involved in delivering the actions proposed in the plan?

The plan needs to be ‘owned’ by everyone because its success very much depends on lifestyle changes and preferences. The implementation of specific actions in the plan will be delivered by various partners and need to be enabled and incentive, where needed, by local and central government.

Businesses, community-based groups and schools are best placed to make substantial contributions and should be key stakeholders in implementing this plan. It is important to involve schools because not only do they hold some key pieces of infrastructure but their involvement allows for an indirect way of educating future generations about the new values we need to adopt to enable the transformations to be successful.

Areas where local boards can assist:

- Public awareness campaigns

- Offering up land/facilities or liaising with local businesses/schools/developers to find locations for any pilot projects (Brightspots)

- Creating or developing zero-waste precincts

- Developing and advocating for more ‘greenways’/walking and cycling infrastructure, better public transportation options, park and rides, walking school buses and other transportation innovations. This includes funding through the Auckland Transport Local Boards Capital Fund.

9. What actions will you take to help us reach the targets set out by the plan? What support do you think you need?

The Board supports the proposal to establish a corporate emissions inventory for the Council and its CCOs. It is important that the Auckland Council, largest employer in Auckland, leads by example.

We would like to see Auckland recognised globally as a leader on this issue and this can be achieved by setting ambitious plans and delivering innovations that can be a model for other cities to adopt.

10. Do you have any further comments or feedback on this action plan?

Puketapapa Local Board welcomes any opportunity to develop and showcase pilot projects in its area where feasible. This will not only help attract investment and development into our area but can assist in raising the awareness of our community on low-carbon technology/pathways.

We note the need to protect transmission corridors but considers that this does not prevent burying the high voltage transmission lines in our area which we are advocating strongly for. We are pleased to see this happening in other areas (eg Albany) and look forward to securing a commitment from Transpower to have this done for Puketapapa.

We have noted with interest some of the innovations happening overseas and think that some of these might be worth investigating:

- mini commuter vehicles hire scheme

- Carpooling

- Courier drones