Consultation: Ināia tonu nei – Climate action for Aotearoa

Carbon Neutral Waiheke's One Big Thing

The non-inclusion of the role wetlands, mangroves, salt marshes, marine reserves, kelp beds and coastal seas play in sequestrating carbon now and in the future.

The Climate Change Commission report is woefully lacking in consideration of the impacts of these resources and makes only passing reference to the topic in Part A of the 2021 Draft Advice for Consultation. Part B of the report it even states that:
"It is not yet known if the NDC will include the land areas of use or uses related to the activities of cropland management, grazing land management, revegetation or wetland drainage and rewetting."

The IPCC guidelines state how to report on these topics. The question is why did the Climate Change Commission not use these guidelines when considering its emissions budgets?

We note that a New Zealand Government report entitled "Carbon sequestration potential of non-ETS land on farms - MPI " states that:
"Since the arrival of European settlers the original extent of wetlands has been reduced by 90%, to approximately 250,000 ha (Ausseil et al. 2015). This loss continues, with 1,247 ha (0.5%) of total wetland area (comprising 214 individual wetlands) completely lost and another 5.4% (746 individual wetlands) experiencing partial loss over the period 2001–2016 (MfE & StatsNZ 2018). This wetland conversion has disturbed large stocks of C, and it is estimated that the current loss from 146,000 ha of farmed organic soils is between 0.5 and 2 Mt∙CO2∙yr− equivalent to 1–6% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the New Zealand agriculture sector (Ausseil et al. 2015). (https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/32134/direct)

The Climate Commission should demand that the Government immediately bans further destruction of wetlands and peatlands in New Zealand.

The role of mangroves, salt marshes, kelp beds and coastal seas is not even mentioned in the Climate Commission’s draft document despite their importance in climate mitigation and adaptation.

Such an action would help New Zealand progress, not only on the issue of climate change, but also on the issues of biodiversity and biomass loss which the UN has stated are the two most important and urgent existential risks facing humanity and all living things. The UN has said that progress on these matters (climate change and biodiversity) must be made within the next decade.

Waiheke is the second largest island of the Hauraki Gulf and has a coastline of 133.5 kms made up of numerous different ecosystems that support a diversity of wildlife. Its coast is made of up of rocky and sandy shores including more than 40kms of white sandy beaches, muddy/estuarine shores, mangroves, seagrass and salt marshes. These habitats are part of the Hauraki Gulf 'seabird super highway' supporting a wide range of bird species.

Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city sits between two oceans (the Tasman and Pacific) and has two major harbours the Manukau and Waitemata/Hauraki Gulf.

The Hauraki Gulf is the major harbour in the Auckland region. It is in theory protected by the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park but the Hauraki Gulf Forum which is responsible for reporting on the state of the Gulf has for twenty years stated that the health of the Gulf is declining which in turn reduces the ability of the Gulf to sequester carbon. (Hauraki Gulf Forum, Annual Report 2018-19)

Central government and local government have initiated processes such as Seachange but no progress has actually been made as policy has not converted to action. As a result, parts of the Gulf are becoming biologically dead with a devastating effect on marine creatures, birdlife and a reduction in biodiversity and biomass.

Because of the seriousness of the situation Ngati Paoa, the local Waiheke Island iwi, in January 2021 declared a rahui within one nautical mile of the island on four shellfish species (mussels, scallops, crayfish and abalone/paua) to enable the species to recover.
After two years the rahui is likely be extended and provide protection for other species. (Shellfish gain protection under rahui, Gulf News, 28 January 2021)

A map of the island and the rahui area have been uploaded seperately.

The health of the Hauraki Gulf could be used by the Climate Commission as an indicator of local and central government success in working together to address the climate emergency they have both declared. To enable this happen the Climate Commission should recommend that:
• 30% of the Hauraki Gulf is in marine protected areas by 2030
• Sea Change – the marine spatial plan finalised in December 2016 is implemented to ensure sustainable management of the Gulf
• the role and governance of the Hauraki Gulf Forum is revamped so that it can be the champion of the Gulf and implement sections 7 and 8 of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act.
• ban all future wetland and mangrove reclamations in the Gulf.
• stop all future wharf extensions at the Port of Auckland
• opposing further marina developments in the Hauraki Gulf due to the harmful effect on water quality, sediment levels and climate change.
• To steps to control coastal erosion and storm surges
• managing and minimising waste water and sediment runoff from farms, new and existing subdivisions, road surfaces that run into the region’s waterways and harbours
• ensuring marine biodiversity is maintained and biosecurity measures are sufficient to prevent the introduction of damaging flora, fauna and pathogens.

If such measures are successful they should be replicated in other areas of New Zealand.

Because of the importance of the marine environment in carbon sequestration Carbon Neutral Kerikeri engaged Dr Joe Russell, an Analytical Chemist from the UK, to consider the carbon sequestration of subtropical marine habitats such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass in Northland. He determined that they sequester around 11% of the estimated 1,100,000-1,300,000 tonnes of carbon that Northlanders emit each year.

In his research, Dr. Russell extrapolated that the ocean naturally sequesters around 24.92 tonnes per km2 or 25gms per m2. whereas the sequestration rates for Northland's three main types of coastal habitats are significantly higher namely:
Saltmarshes 887g CO2 per m2 per year
Mangroves 615g CO2 per m2 per year
Seagrasses 304g CO2 per m2 per year

He then endeavoured to calculate the length of Northland’s coastline and determine the acreages of those particular habitats. He found that the Northland Regional Council's survey data for the east and north-west coasts could be used but the majority of the west coast could only be estimated. The results were as outlined in the table below. _
________________________________________________________________________________
Estimated Contribution based on NRC survey data for east and north-west coast
plus west coast estimates
Habitat Area (Hectares)# Area (m2) CO2 Sequestered
Per yr (ktCO2)##
Northland Surveyed West Coast Est ### Total Est. Area Total Est.CO2
Mangroves 9393 ha 93.93 million 46 million 139.9 86.0
Seagrass 5192 ha 51.92 million 25.4 million 106.3 32.3
Saltmarsh 749 ha 7.49 million 3.7 million 3.7 3.2
Grand Total Estimated CO2 121.5
# DOC Survey 2010 Area Calculations from Table (https//:www.nrc.govt.nz/media/h1px4is/marinehabitatsmapofnorthlandpages1025.pdf
## CO2 per m2per year Mangroves 615g, Seagrass 304g , Saltmarsh 887g (http://dx.dol.org/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0251)
### West Coast correction factor applied based on google maps coast measurements 1052 divided by (3200 minus 1052 = 2148) km = 0.49. assumes proportion of mangroves, seagrass and saltmarsh are equal.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Carbon Neutral Waiheke notes that the global Blue Carbon Initiative has been considering the importance of coastal habitats in carbon sequestration in the world and their Scientific Working Group has developed the “Coastal Blue Carbon: methods for assessing carbon stocks and emissions factors in mangroves, tidal salt marshes, and seagrass meadows”. The National University of Singapore also published a study on how much carbon these types of coastal habitats sequester.

We believe that the role of so-called blue carbon to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the world's ocean ecosystems, mostly algae, mangroves, salt marshes, seagrasses and macroalgae through plant growth and the accumulation plus burial of organic matter in the soil should be part of the Climate Commission's considerations and recommendations.

We also note that mangroves store more carbon per unit area than any other ecosystem on Earth and up to 10 times more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forests. Mangroves have been mentioned as a "carbon-storing superpower". “According to the journal Nature the soil of mangrove forests alone may hold the equivalent of more than two years of global emissions – 22 billion tonnes of carbon much of which would escape if these ecosystems were lost.” (Project Drawdown, Pg 112). This should make mangroves a critical part of New Zealand’s solution to climate change.

We also urge the Climate Commission to consider the potential roles of marine permaculture which cultivate kelp forests that not only store carbon but can provide food, feed, fertiliser, fibre and biofuels. (Project Drawdown pg. 178-180) Also the potential of ocean farming cultivating seaweed and shellfish to clean up polluted waterways and the oceans. (Project Drawdown pg. 206-208)

In addition, as New Zealand has 15,000 kms of coastline (the ninth largest in the world) the role of coastal harbours and seas in climate change needs to be considered by the Climate Commission. It is widely acknowledged that coastal seas whilst comprising only 7% of the oceans area are responsible for 80% of the biological activity.

Healthy oceans are a critical component of the management of carbon emissions.

However, already ocean’s temperatures are rising, acidification is occurring, fishing stocks are being over-exploited and marine ecosystems are being destroyed.

The New Zealand government has been slow to adopt 'best practice' guidelines with regards to fishing techniques and has failed to meet the international community pledge, under the auspices of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, of a decade ago to protect 10% of the ocean by the end of 2020,

The fact that New Zealand and the international community is falling well short of that goal - only about 7.5% of the world's oceans are now protected - demonstrates the difficulty that countries have in meeting their local and internationally agreed environmental goals.

Conservationists are now pressing for the adoption of a more ambitious new international goal of protecting 30% of the world's oceans by 2030. For New Zealand, marine reserves equate to only 0.31 per cent of New Zealand's total marine area even though around 34 per cent of New Zealand's total marine area is protected in some lesser way,

Carbon Neutral Waiheke hopes that climate change is not treated with such disregard by the international and New Zealand communities especially given that the oceans absorb each year around 25% of all CO2 emissions, making it one of the world's largest 'carbon sinks. (World Economic Forum (WEF) website accessed 19 March 2021)

The WEF report states that "The oceans are absorbing more carbon than previously thought" and also notes that:
"Before the industrial era, the ocean was actually a net source of CO2. However, the increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, driven by human-caused emissions are forcing the ocean to now absorb this gas."

This outcome has helped to slow the accumulation of atmospheric CO2 – and, hence, the pace of
global warming – but can the world expect this to continue in the future?

Given that the oceans absorb 90% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions the marine environment deserves its own section, like forestry, in the Climate Commission’s final report.

Carbon Neutral Waiheke considers that the Climate Commission should, as a first step, demand that the Government bans the further destruction of mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass and kelp beds and encourages their restoration.

For the first two emission budgets Carbon Neutral Waiheke urges the Climate Commission to examine the role wetlands, mangroves, salt marshes, marine reserves, kelp beds and coastal seas play in sequestering carbon and make recommendations to Government on how to protect and enhance their capability and capacity to fulfil this vital function.

In subsequent emission budgets, especially in its 2030 to 2050 budgets the likely decrease in the ocean's ability to absorb more carbon needs to be considered by the Climate Commission as a priority.

Big Issue 1 – Pace of change

Strongly Disagree

Carbon Neutral Waiheke considers the pace of change recommended by the Climate Commission are too weak and slow and need to be strengthen considerably given that New Zealand’s average temperature has already increased by one degree C since early 1900s (MfE & Stats NZ, 2017b) and the country is experiencing negative effects of climate change such as coastal erosion, flooding and droughts.

Internationally, in the spring of 2015 the global average temperature increase was 1.1 degreeCelsius and concentrations of CO2 exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time. This resulted in the Arctic’s summer sea ice disappearing; irreversible melting of parts of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets; loss of many warm-water coral reefs; the disappearance of many mountain glaciers and once in 100 year weather events happening regularly. (IPCC Report, Sept 2019)

Other countries such as Norway, an acknowledged climate change leader has committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2030.

Without such a positive approach New Zealand is likely to suffer major adverse environmental social and economic impacts.

Big Issue 2 – Future generations

Strongly Disagree

Carbon Neutral Waiheke recommends that instead of just decreasing our GHG emissions that New Zealand should be attempting to reverse global warming and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Such a bold target will help to give hope to the young people of the country and provide a challenge to businesses, communities and individuals to seek innovative and creative solutions. It would indicate to the citizens of New Zealand that the Government really does see climate change as a climate emergency and that business as usual is not an option.

This is especially important given that future generation not only have to deal with climate change but also according to the UN Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) that nature is in the worst shape in human history. Other commentators suggest that the world has begun a sixth mass extinction as humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970.) (WWF, Living Planet Index)

It is vital that we do not overburden young people. The aim of any generation should be to leave the world in a better place than you found it.

Big Issue 3 – our contribution

Disagree – our changes are not ambitious enough

Carbon Neutral Waiheke considers that expressing the carbon emissions budgets in mega-tonnes of various GHGs is meaningless to the average citizen.

Instead, the carbon mission budgets should be also be expressed in per person terms.

We acknowledge the difficulties associated with production versus consumption based budgets but believe that the general public will be more supportive if they know what target reductions are required by each individual.

For example, considering the 2016 figures for Auckland’s gross emissions of 7.0 tonnes CO2e and net 6.3 tonnes per capita. (Xie, S Auckland’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory to 2016 Technical Report 2019/002) to achieve a 50 per cent reduction target by 2050 the per capita carbon budget will need to be less than 3 tonnes per person especially given the likely population increase of the city.

By setting a target for each citizen to achieve within a specific timeframe they can use the free on-line carbon footprint calculators readily available to measure and reduce their carbon footprint.

We also consider that it is vital that central government and local government emissions budgets align with each other including climate action plans, adaptation and mitigation plans and strategies. Local government plans could exceed national emissions budgets. However, both need to be developed in partnership with local communities and iwi as their input will be crucial to achieve public acceptance and to ensure that the appropriate behaviour changes occur.

Big Issue 4 –role and types of forests

Agree

NW supports The Climate Commission’s approach to the role of forests in carbon mitigation. However, the relative merits of carbon farming versus production forestry will need careful consideration with sufficient areas devoted to native plants as forest carbon sinks. Some form of incentive may be necessary to achieve the desired level of planting which needs to be monitored and reported regularly.

CNW notes that the passing of the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Act 2009 removed blanket tree protection and limited the ability of councils to protect trees in their city or region. The result being, (according to The Tree Council - an advocacy group for Auckland trees) and based on anecdotal evidence gathered from arborists, resource consent applications and members of the public that an estimated 30% of Auckland’s trees have been lost since the Act came into force in 2012. (Margo White, Why trees are vital to New Zealand cities, North & South, February 2018).

The failure of such legislation needs to be noted by the Climate Commission which should recommend that the legislation be overhauled and that tree protection laws be reintroduced.

We also recommend that the reserve contribution for all new housing developments should be increased substantially to include areas of urban forest or bush reserves to sequester carbon with the aim of attempting to make all new subdivisions carbon neutral.

Big Issue 5 – policies, priorities to reduce emissions

Policies need to include – actions to reduce barriers; pricing to influence investments and choices and investments to spur innovations and system transformations

CNNZT Waiheke believes that policy guidelines includes goals, strategies actions that outline both quantitative or qualitative measurement tools, indicators, timelines, reporting frameworks and/ or organization/s responsible so that can be used to measure progress towards each action goal and the emissions budgets in general.

Transport and Tourism

Carbon Neutral Waiheke acknowledges notes that the international aviation and maritime sectors are excluded from the Paris Agreement. As a consequence the amount of New Zealand’s current gross and net carbon emissions are underestimated. This effect is noticeable when a New Zealand household or business completes their carbon footprint calculator as air travel is frequently the largest component of the business or household’s carbon emissions.

We contend that to address the climate emergency the New Zealand Government should reduce their emphasis on international tourism as an income earner for the country as the climate impact is too severe. A return journey between Auckland and New Zealand is responsible for about 355kgs per passenger and between Auckland and New Zealand 2.645 tonnes per passenger. (Air New Zealand website accessed 27 March 2021)

Cruise ships are even worse than international aviation. George Marshall, of the Climate Outreach Information Network, has calculated that for a trip from Southampton to New York on the Queen Elizabeth 11 “Every passenger is responsible for 9.1 tonnes of GHG emissions. Travelling to New York and back on the QE11, in other words, uses almost 7.6 times as much carbon as making the same journey by plane.” This calculation excluded environmental costs of water treatment and disposal, waste, sewerage and oil-contaminated water. (The Guardian 20 December 2016)

New Zealand should make an explicit commitment to reduce the number and size of cruise ships visiting our shores post-Covid 19 and to reduce the number of international flights arriving at our airports and actively engage in programmes to mitigating the climate impact from unregulated tourism.

For local transport policies initiatives should include:
• phasing out of the use of fossil fuel cars by 2030
• aim to decrease the levels of car ownership and reduce the annual kilometers travelled.
• increase the type and range of public transport options including ferries, light and heavy rail.
• encourage changes in road use patterns by giving priority to EVs, buses and imposing a congestion tax on vehicles brought into cities centres.
• rapidly increase the safe use of E Scooters, mobility scooters by providing suitable infrastructure
• report bi-annually the percentage of land used for car transport and the parking network.
• investigate the option of community owned transport

Building and Construction

Policies initiatives should include:
• all building construction projects to include a carbon footprint assessment of the building process (construction and demolition) when applying for building or demolition permits.
• all building design to align with the green building code and/or sustainable architectural principles
(This is important given that in countries such as the UK 40% of GHG emissions are caused by the built environment (Moore, R: Building Sustainable Castles in the sky, Guardian Weekly, 13 September 2019 pgs. 24-25)
• solar systems to become mandatory on all new buildings – residential and commercial
• new or retrofitted buildings have mandatory E vehicle charging facilities for cars, scooters and bikes
• new and retrofitted building design to include the ability to have roof-top gardens, to link with microgrids systems and community co-heating systems
• encourage the use of windpower in commercial and industrial precincts
• reduce the car parking requirements for residential and commercial buildings
• make changes to the Building Act to promote better building insulation, installation of solar panels, EV charging portals, car parking etc. have been achieved

Energy

Policies initiatives should include:
• develop local and regional decentralized renewable energy systems including solar, wind-power, micro-grids, co-generation and community heating schemes.
• use the resource and building consent process to make green energy alternatives such as solar water heating and roof top solar panels mandatory on all new houses and commercial buildings
• phase out the use of wood fires by 2025 and LPG fires by 2030.

Waste

Policies initiatives should include:
• promote the role of community gardens, home gardening and crop swops as a means of increasing local food resilience
• undertake a public education campaign to reduce food waste as research shows that New Zealanders are binning about a third of food or about 157,000 tonnes every year creating a major GHG emission problem which is about four times greater than aviation.
• promote home and community composting of organic waste and implement separate kerbside food scraps collection

Big Issue 6 – technology and behaviour change

Strongly disagree

The climate emergency will result in major technological changes. Evidence from other disruptive technological changes such as the internet, mobile phones, social media and artificial intelligence show that early adopters of the technology reap most of the innovation and economic rewards. The question is why is New Zealand not actively seeking such potential gains and we urge the Climate Commission to provide more concrete recommendations.

If New Zealand goes late in adopting carbon reduction strategies and actions then the necessary changes will require compulsion, regulations and enforcement with a corresponding curtailment of personal liberty, and lack of choice For example, to solve traffic issues in cities such as Paris, London and Singapore a congestion tax is levied on motorists.

Carbon Neutral Waiheke believes that without the concerted efforts of locally based businesses, communities and individuals utilising a bottom-up, grass-roots approach no or limited meaningful climate-related behavioural change will occur.

Positive and sustainable behavioural change relies not only upon coercion, regulation or economic incentives but on an educated public willing to sacrifice short-term economic gains for longer-term equitable growth in incomes and well-being, plus improved environmental, social, health, cultural and economic outcomes. Covid-19 taught us that this true.

Carbon Neutral Waiheke considers there are a large number of business opportunities available to engage productively in developing a low-emission economy green economy that grows incomes equitably and promotes social and environmental well-being.

Local and central government can assist this process by leveraging public sector and large businesses supply chains to deliver on climate outcomes by using social procurement protocols in all purchasing contracts.

Public education programmes will be required to achieve behavioural change. Such programmes will need to enable citizens to engage actively in addressing their consumption levels, to decrease their green house gases emissions and increase their sequestering of carbon

Barriers will need to be unlocked to support community-based initiatives that reduce emissions and build resilience in a fair way.

We suggest that all climate action bylaws, policies and decision-making should be based on the use of the Conserver Society “minimum regrets planning” and the “seventh generation principle” (based on an ancient Iroquois philosophy that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future) to ensure intergenerational concerns are addressed.

Such an approach is important as around the world millions of young people and adults have supported Greta Thunberg’s call for action as they realize the world is facing not gradual, controllable and largely benign climate change but a climate crisis.