Some things are too big to tackle alone, so Tauranga City Council is teaming up with mana whenua partners, stakeholders and its communities to create Tauranga's first climate plan.
One of several council Action and Investment Plans on the go this side of Christmas, the climate plan will clearly outline what actions we can take together to fight climate change.
Tauranga City Council Commissioner Shad Rolleston says the community has made it clear that looking after the environment and reducing our carbon footprint is important to them, and the council is listening.
'New Zealand and Tauranga Moana are already experiencing the effects of climate change with rising sea levels, increased time spent in drought and when it does rain, we get a lot of it in a single event,” he says.
'Globally, if we don't reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, the climate will keep changing and we'll face huge challenges in the future. Tauranga must play its part in that global effort.”
Shad acknowledges it can be hard to know what to do as an individual or single organisation when facing something as daunting as climate change, which is why we need to take action together.
'One easy thing everyone in Tauranga can do right now is to jump online and take our survey, which will help us get this right. A youth climate conference is also being planned for early next year to ensure we include the views and perspectives of our rangatahi,” he says.
'The whole community has a part to play in addressing the effects of climate change – from government and business through to communities and individuals – and we want to hear from everyone. Some actions the council can lead, but many are in the hands of others. Our ambitions need to be broader than any single organisation or individual.”
When we lift each other up, we all win.
Other Action and Investment Plans the council is looking for feedback on before Christmas include making Tauranga more accessible for everyone, making our communities safer, and doing more to support arts and culture. Unlike the climate plan, these plans are not starting from scratch.
Instead, they will pull together actions from council's existing plans and strategies and build on feedback already received from the community to create new actions.
'We've heard from more than 10,000 people through various methods that they want to live in a place where we prioritise nature, lift each other up and fuel possibility. These plans will include actions that are already planned and identify possible new actions that can be considered as part of our future planning and investment decision-making,” says Shad.
'Together our community has decided that it's important for Tauranga to become a city for the people and live up to its name – Tauranga – a place of safe anchorage and wellbeing.”
'We know everyone's time is precious, so we're not bothering our communities by asking questions we've already asked before, but we are checking in on anything new, like the climate plan, which is a first for this council.”
To take the survey go to www.Tauranga.govt.nz/actionplan
Maybe she's artsy, maybe we're all born with it. Be part of a city that's hardwired for arts and culture.
9 comments
Whatever
Posted on 27-10-2022 12:19 | By an_alias
Just come out and say it straight you want to charge Tauranga a massive amount of tax. But hey keep the pretence up.
Are you sure?.........
Posted on 27-10-2022 14:22 | By groutby
....we all want to go this way as a city?..we are already bombarded by central government with additional charges and ways to 'combat climate change' real or not, so we as a city want to add to that by introducing yet more stuff that will doubtless add to costs which are already doing our best to deal with, all with serious doubts that it will lead to anything positive whatsoever....as an_alias comments suggests just let us know how much more we will be charged whatever we say.....if you didn't know 'Shad'....we are just about over being told we all need to pay for so much less....
Overit
Posted on 27-10-2022 15:37 | By overit
Wokeism here. TCC will blame lack of water on climate change and whatever else
Go Away
Posted on 27-10-2022 16:45 | By Local Too
Get off this UN garbage and fix Tauranga roads etc etc.
Absolutely ridiculous for zero gains
Posted on 27-10-2022 18:21 | By Let's get real
How can so many people be so deluded to think that anything that is enacted by 150,000 people (not all of whom are ratepayers) will impact the planet. Spending ratepayers cash on talkfests and untested initiatives that will result in ZERO returns and ZERO outcomes for the planet is criminal. When will the unjustifiable haemorrhage of ratepayers funds be cancelled and old fashioned common sense returned to the community purse-strings and the future planning for the community. Enormous changes could happen if funding was targeted towards what ratepayers (working people) need to enable them to pay their rates and taxes. Income is extremely hard to come by in Tauranga, but it flows like water out of council offices and benefits very few people in their daily lives. Commissioners are basically unaccountable and have no requirement to justify their actions because we can't get rid of them.
Plan
Posted on 27-10-2022 18:41 | By Slim Shady
Is having big diesel buses driving around with no passengers on them part of the plan? Appears so.
Serious Question
Posted on 27-10-2022 19:20 | By Bob Landy
If Tauranga does all of this by how many degrees centigrade will the Earth cool by?
Climate Plan??
Posted on 28-10-2022 06:54 | By Thats Nice
What on earth is a "A youth climate conference"? And when it rains, how about collecting it instead of letting it all run off and then next minute we have water restrictions. Btw the climate has always changed, you've just got to go back far enough and take a look. Sure, we should be looking at pollution though - I get that.
Commissioners
Posted on 29-10-2022 09:55 | By Kancho
When I read this article i can't help thinking about commissioners competence. It's no different to when one hears someone asking you to believe them and that they have answers and yet you know they have lied .
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