Minutes of Climate Action Joint Committee

1. Welcome/Karakia /Apologies

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and Roger Maaka opened with a karakia. It was noted that items 9 and 10 will be considered prior to item 4.

Resolution

CAJCC12/24 That the apologies for absence from Tania Eden, Mayor Craig Little and councillors Tania Kerr and Tim Aitken be accepted.

Ormsby/Thomas

CARRIED

2. Conflict of interest declarations

There were no conflicts of interest declared.

3. Confirmation of Minutes of the Climate Action Joint Committee meeting held on 11 December 2023

CAJCC17/24

Resolution

Minutes of the Climate Action Joint Committee meeting held on Monday, 11 December 2023, a copy having been circulated prior to the meeting, were taken as read and confirmed as a true and correct record.

Harding/Brosnan

CARRIED

Climate Action Plan: Risks and Opportunities

Desiree Cull, Taylor Eubanks and Paulina Wilhelm introduced the item on behalf of TAG, a stepping stone in the development of a Climate Action Plan being presented to obtain feedback on the direction of travel from the Joint Committee. Discussion traversed:

· The importance of the biodiversity pou and the possibility of working to identify and highlight synergies between different projects as well as to investigate a large anchor project such as a regional biodiversity corridor.

· The risk of the joint committee becoming a dumping ground for tangentially climate related work and identifying two key projects to focus on for the first 12 months to avoid that happening.

· Engaging with industry to identify, encourage and lend the committee’s mana to actions that could be taken, or are being taken, by other organisations in the region.

· The prioritisation advancing the emissions reduction plan as a separate piece of work.

· The role of the joint committee as a governor for adaptation and mitigation, a facilitator of regionally hard conversations and providing strategic over sight of climate initiatives across Hawke’s Bay.

· A clear work programme for the joint committee, with adaptation and mitigation workstreams, is needed.

CAJCC18/24

Resolutions

That the Climate Action Joint Committee:

1. Receives and considers the Climate Action Plan: Risks and Opportunities staff report.

2. Provides feedback on the direction taken by staff in the formulation of a climate action plan.

Walker/Hazlehurst

CARRIED

10.

Priority Ecosystem Presentation

Mark Mitchell and Annabel Beattie introduced the item. The presentation and discussion covered:

· Significant Natural Areas and other planning protections may help manage deforestation but will not address long term degradation of eco systems. To do this Hawke’s Bay Regional Council works with landowners so they can undertake their own pest control and fencing.

· Biodiversity is significant to regional emissions reduction through sequestration.

· Pest management of feral deer at a regional scale has substantial costs associated with it.

· Protecting the biodiversity that we have is important, given how much carbon is sequestered in big old trees and how long it would take to recreate that with planting.

· The Department of Conservation estate and working with them.

· Programmes like this are important within the wider spectrum of policies, programmes and organisations such as Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay and Land for Life, and considering how they work together.

CAJCC19/24

Resolution

That the Climate Action Joint Committee receives and notes the Priority Ecosystems Programme Presentation.

Walker/Hazlehurst

CARRIED

Joint Committee funding update

Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau introduced the item, noting that Dylan Muggeridge, the author, could not attend due to another commitment and outlining the process to date. Discussion traversed:

· It is difficult to make budgetary decisions without a work programme.

· Whether the Climate Action Joint Committee is best placed to undertake and own the climate risk assessment work given Civil Defence also has responsibility and will use the data, as will partner councils. If there is a risk that nobody else will undertake the work this is an opportunity to take leadership and bring mana to the Joint Committee. It’s important that the end users of any data collected as part of the risk assessment have oversight of the data.

· Given that there is funding from councils available for community groups and projects which could be used for climate action, whether it is relevant for the joint committee to have budget specific funding for community grants as an important part of building a movement for mitigation.

· Need to work with the Regional Recovery Agency, Council infrastructure departments and other internal stakeholders to find additional funding for the risk assessment as this is critical for the region. CAJC needs to show some leadership and be part of this, and the question of ownership can be resolved later.

· The funding spilt has been agreed by the chief executives and there is no requirement for detail at the line level.

CAJCC20/24

Resolutions

That the Climate Action Joint Committee:

1. Receives and considers the Joint Committee Funding Update staff report.

2. Agrees that the decisions to be made are not significant under the criteria contained in Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s adopted Significance and Engagement Policy, and that the Joint Committee can exercise its discretion and make decisions on this issue without conferring directly with the community or persons likely to have an interest in the decision.

3. Endorses the allocation of $690,000 over three years towards the Climate Action work programme, including provision for communication and engagement.

Hazlehurst/Walker

CARRIED

Horticultural Climate Change Resilience research presentation

Luke Merson from Plant and Food Research presented to the Joint Committee. Questions and discussions highlighted:

· In a warming Hawke’s Bay, conventional varieties will become harder to grow, but research that Plant and Food Research is partnering in can continue to enable success in the region.

· Plant and Food Research is not just pursuing yield in their breeding programmes but a more holistic view which is becoming more important especially when working with partners in Europe where there are tighter regulations.

· There is a risk that conventional breeding technology used in New Zealand is not quick enough and this is being addressed by research investigating novel breeding technologies.

Councillor Annette Bronson left the meeting at 3:02pm

The Joint Committee adjourned 3:02pm and convened at 3:33pm

Natural Hazards gap analysis

Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau introduced the item, which was taken as read. Highlights and questions covered:

· Guidance from the Ministry for the Environment was published last week, pertaining to the science, but it is still important to establish values and tolerance levels with the Hawke’s Bay community.

· The hazards portal requires a software refresh.

· Many risks overlap with civil defence, but many don’t, e.g. marine heatwaves, increasing salinity of ground water.

· Important piece of work that needs to be integrated with civil defence, asset management and cyclone recovery work as discussed in the funding item.

CAJCC21/24

Resolution

That the Climate Action Joint Committee receives and notes the Natural Hazards Gap Analysis staff report.

Hazlehurst/Kelly

CARRIED

Napier City Council Natural Hazards: Issues and Options Consultation

Paulina Wilhelm introduced the item, highlighting that the variation had been left out of the NCC District Plan as notified last year due to a need for sufficient time to assess the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle and for capacity from mana whenua. Consultation is open until the end of May.

CAJCC22/24

Resolution

That the Climate Action Joint Committee receives and notes the Napier City Council Natural Hazards: Issues and Options Consultation staff report.

Browne/Harding

CARRIED

Regional Community Carbon Footprint update

Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau introduced the item. The presentation and discussions included:

· The data is available to be presented to member councils and Post Settlement Governance Entities.

· It may be important to understand emissions within a wider time period than three years to understand the wider context given temporary impacts and the relevance of long term trends to decision-making however there are challenges with older data such as different methodologies used.

· The Regional Energy Transition Accelerator (RETA) programme is looking to address the stationary energy component, which is largely from food production in HB. This will assist the industry to find alternative lower-emissions solutions.

· Better conversations with the community may be facilitated by reporting methane emissions separately especially given that the national goal is a split gas goal however the concern is that this will mean that agricultural emissions will not be adequately highlighted alongside other sectors.

· Potential to include carbon sequestration data supplied by the forestry sector.

· The potential for building a substation at the Port to reduce the burning of heavy fuels in marine freight and reduce emissions by 4%, also as a resilience measure.

· There is some reporting that New Zealand Beef and Sheep Production has a lower carbon footprint than other territories however this is dependent on which metric is used.

· Forestry recorded in the emissions trading scheme may be used to offset emissions outside of Hawke’s Bay so communicating that it offsets emissions in HB may be double-dipping so a focus on regional gross emissions is important.

· Staff were asked to show agricultural emissions over time and stock numbers over time, and it was agreed that the HBRC Climate scientist can update the footprint on an annual basis and to undertake a verified assessment 3-yearly, with a full report.

CAJCC23/24

Resolution

That the Climate Action Joint Committee receives and notes the Regional Community Carbon Footprint update staff report.

Browne/Harding

CARRIED

Dr Roger Maaka closed with a karakia.

Closure:

There being no further business the Chair declared the meeting closed at 3.53pm on 11 March 2024

Signed as a true and correct record.

Date: ................................................ Chair: ...............................................

Subsequent to the meeting, the following information was provided to Climate Action Joint Committee members in response to a question raised in discussion of agenda item 8. Regional Community Carbon Footprint update.

Dr Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau emailed:

The following data comes from Statistics NZ who publishes regional emissions trends back to 2007.

The graph shows both agricultural emissions (which include other things like nitrous oxide from fertiliser) and methane emissions. This is indicative only but should be a good indicator of trends towards the domestic targets under the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act.