Full description of idea:

The survey requesting feedback on Rates and Debt offers traditional options of what our rates should be and what they should cover but perhaps it is time to view this in the light of one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced - a warming planet. This proposal suggests an additional targeted rate be set to cover Climate Change mitigation projects so that we can hold our heads high in the knowledge that we have at least started down a path that will ensure the protection of the planet for future generations.

But first some background
• As evidence of the impacts of climate change mounts, the urgency to act now to address our carbon emissions and therefore keep global warming under 1.5 ⁰C (the Paris 2015 target) becomes more and more compelling. This cannot wait for 10 years.

• The MPDC signed up to the Local Government Leaders’ Climate Change Declaration of 2017 indicating a willingness to “develop and implement ambitious action plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”. (https://www.lgnz.co.nz/our-work/publications/local-government-leaders-climate-change-declaration-2017/)

• A July 2019 IAG-Ipsos poll found that the number of Kiwis who feel the issue of climate change is important to them personally has grown to 79 per cent, from 72 per cent in 2018. (https://www.iag.co.nz/latest-news/articles/Kiwi-concern-grows-about-climate-change.html)

• A December 2019 ABC News study in Australia asked 54,000 Australians the question “What would you spend to prevent climate change and what could you get for your money”. The study revealed that Australians, on average, were prepared to pay AUD200 more per year to do this. (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-17/what-youd-spend-to-halt-climate-change-and-what-you-could-get/11784704?nw=0)

Of the smaller and more regionally based councils, the MPDC is not alone in struggling to convert the goals of the Local Government Leaders’ Climate Change Declaration into plans and actions. The declaration, for some signatories, is in danger of not being worth the paper it was written on. The financial impact on ratepayers is frequently quoted as the reason for this, but this is a perception. The surveys suggest the reality is different.

Using the Australian example as a guide, we have the opportunity to create an average targeted rate of say $200 pa, ringfenced to pay for selected projects (to be advertised prior to the annual rates review), that will achieve meaningful reductions in our local greenhouse gas emissions. Projects could include methane capture at landfills, cycling networks to get people out of cars, electrification of the council’s own vehicle fleets, zoning of land for native forest regeneration, education programmes to empower the local community to take action on a personal level.

This targeted rate should also be accompanied by a comprehensive sustainability strategy, a dedicated role on council to drive the necessary actions and carbon emissions reporting to ensure the funds are being used to greatest effect. (See also https://www.mpdc.govt.nz/your-voice-your-vision?detail186=34547)

It will require courage, but the time has now come for us, the very people that are responsible for the situation we find ourselves in, and who have known about it for over 30 years, to start paying to ensure that our children and grandchildren get to live the future we envisage for them.

It is unfair for them to carry the financial burden of this in the coming years so projects such as those indicated above should be funded by rates, not debt.
See also https://www.mpdc.govt.nz/your-voice-your-vision?detail186=34547 and https://www.mpdc.govt.nz/your-voice-your-vision?detail186=36508

How this idea will benefit the community:

Comments on this idea:

Nobody has commented on this idea yet...