In July last year, councillors voted to commit to applying best practice and best science to the regional council’s responsibilities and "accord urgency" to developing an action plan.
The draft was developed last December and feedback was sought from members of the strategy and policy committee on a preliminary climate action plan yesterday — they have until July 31 to respond.
The final plan, which will outline the regional council’s actions and responsibilities in addressing climate impacts and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, will be submitted at the strategy and policy committee meeting on September 2.
Policy and planning team leader Gavin McCullagh said the plan had changed since the draft to ensure "actions align with ES’s strategic outcomes expressed in the long-term plan".
"The actions for 2019-2020 listed in the original draft have been removed and the plan looks forward over the next two years."
He said it had been delayed but progress had recommenced.
When approved, implementation of the plan would be overseen by the council’s strategy and engagement division.
"This is the first part of the plan and focuses on what Environment Southland can do, particularly in its day to day business. There are a wide range of actions, some of which are already under way — such as the transition to hybrid and low emission vehicles."
Other actions included initiating a full engineering review of the Waihopai flood management scheme, developing a stocktake of actions that could be undertaken within existing budgets, and the design and implementation of an emission reduction programme across all of the council’s operations.
At the meeting yesterday, Cr Lloyd McCallum said the plan was aspirational and had a lot of "big stuff" in it.
"I’m not saying that’s wrong, but I don’t quite fully understand, if I’m honest with myself — what does carbon-neutral actually mean as a business? What are those costs?"
Cr Robert Guyton said it was important to think of the "big picture" and not get tied down in the details.
"Somebody has to look at the issue and get their head around it and describe it to everybody else so they’ve got a shared platform to work from. What people do about that, on the farm or in their home, largely is up to them because it is such a complex issue."
