DCC’s energy use policies failing: study

The Dunedin City Council’s energy-use and climate policies are not working, and there is a real need for the council to review how it can reverse present trends, a new study says.

The council-funded University of Otago Centre for Sustainability "Dunedin Energy Study" was much more detailed than other similar studies, centre director Associate Prof Janet Stephenson said.

It did not track all carbon dioxide equivalents, such as methane, nitrous oxide and refrigerants, but it captured Dunedin’s electricity and fuel use through a bottom-up approach, including coal, wood, lpg, diesel and petrol use.

"It’s absolutely everything we do that involves any form of energy," Prof Stephenson said.

After the annual report set baseline data five years ago, the data released yesterday, for 2018-19, showed the city’s energy consumption continued to increase, she said.

Energy use increased faster than population growth; it also increased faster than the city’s economy grew.

Diesel remained the single-largest form of energy consumed in Dunedin, and the researchers would love to know why, Prof Stephenson said.

"That’s a trend over the past five years — a significant increase in diesel — whereas interestingly petrol use is flattening, but diesel use is keeping on going up," Prof Stephenson said.

Diesel made up 36% of all energy use within the city, followed by electricity (23%), petrol (20%), biomass (13%), coal (4%), LPG (3%) and sulphur (2%), the study said.

The proportion of non-renewable fuels used had grown faster than the use of renewable fuels.

Energy-related greenhouse gas emissions had grown each year, rising 15.7% over the past four years.

The study said the city was largely failing to achieve its energy-related aspirations.

The council’s energy-related goals of increasing energy efficiency and the proportion of renewable energy used, expanding the use of biomass and decreasing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions were at stake, Prof Stephenson said.

"And also, they’ve committed to carbon net zero by 2030," Prof Stephenson said.

"Energy emissions are carbon.

"There are some little wee bright spots, which one might call at the moment ‘tiny drops in a basin full of water’."

While awareness of the problem had increased, the bad news continued to greatly outweigh the good, she said.

The study said the council’s energy and climate targets had been in place for years and yet trends were heading in the opposite direction.

"Clearly, policies are not working," it concluded.

"There is an urgent need for a rethink of how the city council can turn these negative trends around.

"This means taking these goals seriously in the council’s own day-to-day decision-making and developing collaborations for change with other key actors in the region."

Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins said the report was concerning, but not surprising.

The energy study highlighted the scale of the issue the council faced to achieve its goal of being net zero carbon by 2030, he said.

The council’s upcoming 10-year plan was an opportunity to consider which projects to advance or speed up to significantly reduce emissions, he said.

"Clearly, reducing transport emissions needs to be a key point of focus," Mr Hawkins said.

"But there’s also a role for the [council] to better understand the specific drivers of these increased transport emissions."