Climate Change Minister James Shaw was at Arana College in Dunedin yesterday to talk about the Government’s State Sector Decarbonisation Fund.
Another $4.8 million has been allocated from the $220 million fund to support the uptake of energy-efficient lighting and electric vehicles across the public sector.
The University of Otago received $224,000 from the fund in 2021 to upgrade a coal boiler at Arana College, with the university chipping in $337,000.
The new wood pellet boiler was expected to save about 7000 tonnes of CO2 over 10 years.
All up, the projects supported by the fund are expected to save 432,924 tonnes of carbon over a decade, equivalent to taking 17,800 cars off the road.
Mr Shaw said it is important to make small moves which add up so national and international goals can be achieved.
The end of coal at the Otago campus was "really exciting", Mr Shaw said.
Coal was the most CO2 intensive source of fuel used.
Coal boilers had been a starting point for the state sector’s decarbonisation plans, and there was also an ongoing focus on the 16,000 cars used across government.
The fleet would be moving towards electric vehicles where possible and hybrids where it was not as easy to replace fossil-fuel-powered options.
Progress had been affected by the same supply chain issues which affected other sectors.
"I think anybody who talks to me will know that I would like New Zealand to be moving a lot faster at decarbonising the economy as a whole, and I do think it is really important for the Government to take a leadership position," Mr Shaw said.
Over the past year, he had noticed "a real shift" in people’s attitude towards climate action.
The frequency and severity of fires, floods, droughts and storms was moving climate change from something that people were aware of intellectually to something they were affected by.
"That, I think, is changing the way people think about it, and it's putting more pressure on the Government to act fast on climate change, which is a good thing because we actually need that public pressure," he said.
