Councillors were tasked with providing feedback on the regional climate change principles and aspirations, which had been developed by the regional inter-agency working group on climate change, during Tuesday’s council meeting.
Deputy mayor Tom Campbell, Cr Lesley Soper and council strategy, policy and engagement manager Rhiannon Suter are the council representatives on the working group.
Mayor Nobby Clark said his view of the issue was reinforced by information showing climate change was not a predominant issue for many residents.
Climate change received the lowest rating in the 2022-23 second-quarter resident surveys, and the second-lowest rating in order of importance for 14 regional issues.
"People know we’ve got to do something in climate change, but don’t know what we’ve got to do and when I listen sometimes to some of the voices in our council cluster, people are all rowing the waka in a different direction."
He said his personal opinion was no matter what government was elected later this year, it would be better for Environment Southland, as one of 14 regional councils, to take over the climate change issues, allowing central government to have a top-down system of direction.
"It just seems to me when you’ve got 67 councils working on a bottom-up model, there’s just no consistency."
"I would actually like to see some real science ... there is no doubt there is sea level rise, that is proven, but if we are going to make decisions in a governance role, we don’t want to be going off on tangents with personal beliefs.
"We don’t want to act like frantic people trying to save the planet without sensible science."
"This sort-of sitting around with a guitar singing Kumbaya, I’m not into that at all."
Cr Campbell said it would be absolutely negligent of councillors to "wait until the waters are lapping Tay St before we believed climate change was happening".
Cr Pottinger reiterated sea level rise was a problem.
Cr Barry Stewart said he did not agree with climate change.
"I think we’re chucking a lot of money at something that, unless you can prove to me or show me documents, then I might start believing it, but I don’t believe it for a second at the moment."
Cr Allan Arnold said climate change was not a high priority for him, and he did not think the council would be able to make an impact on it whatsoever.
"As a country, I know we’ve got to do our bit, but we are just such a small contributor to the carbon footprint of the world, yet we all think we are going to do something marvellous here and change it — we are not going to change anything."
Cr Lesley Soper said after hearing the discussion around the table, she was tempted to play devil’s advocate and "start an argument that in fact the earth is flat".
"However, I am a responsible councillor and I am going to go back to the actual point of what we are doing here and really reiterate the comments that the deputy mayor and I have made," she said.
"We can, as a council, play a significant role in moving this issue forward. There is absolutely no doubt that the balance of evidence is weighted in favour of us needing to do that, " Cr Soper said.
