Organisational Climate Emergency Action Plan

As an organisation we have declared a climate emergency and formally established a target to become "carbon neutral" by 2030.

We aim to:

• Be carbon neutral reducing and offsetting the organisations' greenhouse gas ("carbon") emissions
• Reduce our net emissions by 40% by 2025
• Introduce 5-yearly carbon budgets
• And be carbon negative (producing more carbon credits from our land than we need for offsetting) by 2035.

Organisational Climate Emergency Action Plan

1. Operate a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction policy and procurement policy that put a strong bias towards those options that will avoid, reduce, or absorb emissions over their entire life. Decision makers must consider how climate change would impact on proposals made to them, and the impact the proposals would have on GHG emissions and targets.
2. Maintain appropriate governance arrangements for climate change. The Chief Executive is responsible for achieving organisational emissions reduction targets. Ensure there is a senior management champion for climate change priorities within the organisation and promote the programme internally and externally.
3. Enhance organisational emissions reporting, including by establishing a system for tracking the amount of carbon stored on Greater Wellington-managed land. Investigate the feasibility of including more supply-chain emissions in Greater Wellington’s annual emissions inventory.
4. Set up and implement the Energy Transformation Initiative to maximise the potential of renewable energy and batteries to reduce organisational GHG emissions and energy costs, earn revenue, and increase energy security, through direct investment and new supply arrangements.
5. Electrify the entire public transport system as rapidly as is feasible, including buses, trains, ferries, and shuttles. Achieve an all-electric bus fleet by 2035. Ensure 100% of Greater Wellington’s corporate light vehicle fleet is either pure battery-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2035.
6. Implement the Toitu Te Whenua Parks Network Plan 2020-30, progressively retiring grazing and restoring native ecosystems across parks.
7. Investigate options for reducing and sequestering emissions on flood protection land including nature-based solutions.
8. Operate a Low Carbon Acceleration Fund for projects that reduce Greater Wellington’s organisational GHG emissions by leveraging the value of the emissions units gifted to Council by Government in 2012 for its pre-1990 forests.
9. Complete and maintain an organisational climate risk assessment and produce and implement an organisational adaptation plan. Disclose Greater Wellington’s climate-related risks.
10. Work with the boards and executives of Council Controlled Organisations, in particular CentrePort Limited, to align their level of ambition and programmes for reducing emissions and addressing their climate-related risks with that of Greater Wellington.

Reviewed and Approved by Council on September 29 2024

Organisational Climate Emergency Action Plan

Updated 29 September 2024 Read more here

date_range Published 06 Sep 2023

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