Council urged to include cruise ship and aviation emissions in tally

Tuesday, 21 May 2024

The Christchurch City Council heard from submitters on why it needs to include cruise and aviation emissions from the port and airport in its carbon accounting.

The Christchurch City Council has been urged to stop using a “loophole” to reduce the size of its emissions tally, and instead include cruise ship and aviation emissions in its carbon accounting.

The council tabled its emissions inventory for the 2022/23 financial year last week, the first since 2019. Council operations produced a gross total of just over 33,700 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e), about 1.35% of the district's total gross emissions.

Emissions were up significantly on previous inventories (from 2016-19 financial years, which averaged between 20,000 and 23,000 tCO2-e), but as methodologies had changed significantly in the interim, they could not be compared, and this year’s report would become the baseline.

The report found the largest portion - 63% - came from wastewater treatment processing, followed by electricity at 18% and fuel at 16%.

The report did not include Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs), Council Controlled Trading Organisations (CCTOs), or any area the council does not have day-to-day operational control of.

The Ovation of the Seas docked in Lyttelton, one of 83 cruise ships that arrived in the small port town, to the consternation of some locals. (File photo)

This meant emissions from Lyttelton Port and Christchurch Airport were excluded, something several submitters took the council to task on.

In March, a council-commissioned report by consultants AECOM showed just a 1% reduction in the city's total gross greenhouse gas emissions since 2017, leading the council to concede it would be unlikely to meet its own target of a 50% reduction by 2030.

The AECOM report estimated Christchurch’s cruise ship emissions to be 54,302 tonnes of CO2-e in the 2022/23 financial year - equivalent to about 2% of Christchurch's total gross emissions - but did not include this figure in the total due to “data limitations.”

The city council’s own submission to the Climate Commission's consultation on international shipping and aviation emissions, tabled at the same meeting, endorsed adding those emissions into national targets, stating it “increases transparency” and aligned with major trading partners.

University of Otago Honorary Professor James Higham urged the council to include emissions from CCOs in its accounting, saying reducing the council’s own emissions by flying less or electrifying where possible was “important,” but amounted to “low hanging fruit”.

University of Otago Honorary Professor James Higham says aviation and shipping is “where a large share of current and future emissions lie”.

“Shipping and aviation is where a large share of current and future emissions lie.”

Climate Liberation Aotearoa spokesperson Michael Apathy also asked the council to close the “loophole”, and take responsibility as the owner of both Lyttelton Port and Christchurch International Airport.

He warned targets without action risked creating the impression of improvement without follow through.

“This kind of thinking is why we're blowing past 1.5 degrees … better to scrap entirely rather than continue with the illusion you're doing everything possible, because that illusion of trust and transparency is a betrayal.”

Councillor Kelly Barber questioned the value of acting based on New Zealand’s comparatively small contribution to global emissions.

Spreydon Ward councillor Dr Melanie Coker says the council should shift to a different model of carbon accounting to include the council owned organisations producing the most emissions. (File photo)

Mayor Phil Mauger also urged restraint.

“Where do you stop? We shouldn't forget New Zealand is at the bottom of the world.”

But given New Zealand's per-capita emissions were well above the global average, those types of responses were “pretty reductionist lines of argument”, Higham said.

Cities and states around the world were taking action at the municipal level to limit or ban cruise visits, measuring the cost of air pollution to resident’s health, or requiring ships to plug into shore power supply rather than “belch carbon and air pollution while they’re at berth”, he said.

Councillor Mel Coker backed including a full emissions profile, suggesting a shift from the day-to-day operations criteria the inventory used, to one of financial control, which would see the port, airport and other council controlled organisations included.

“I don't know if taking a financial control approach will help us reduce our emissions any quicker or make it more challenging, but on the other hand, why hide from the truth?”

Environment Canterbury, which has just released the region’s first greenhouse gas inventory, planned to include international aircraft and shipping emissions in its next report, due in 2026, a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the council had yet to make its submission to the Climate Commission, but would not comment on the inclusion of shipping or aviation in New Zealand's 2050 target as it “falls outside our remit”.