Rod Carr says Canterbury has ‘many pathways’ to a low-emissions future

Friday, 13 December 2024

Canterbury and New Zealand are well placed to adapt to climate change, says former climate change commissioner Rod Carr.

“As a country, we have many pathways that we can follow to a thriving, low emissions and climate resilient future,” he said at the launch of the Canterbury Mayoral Forum Climate Partnership Plan.

“Some countries don't have that hope. Small Pacific islands are in desperate straits,” he said.

“In Canterbury … we are gifted amazing choices,” he said

For example, the province gets about 1700 hours of solar a year - compared to about 3200 hours in Dubai and 2200 hours in Nelson.

But that’s plenty.

Rooftop solar done today in Canterbury can lock in a solar price of less than 10 cents a kilowatt hour for the next 25 years, with technology available now, he said.

“That’s pretty impressive. We don’t need a silver bullet. We don’t need any innovation.”

Meanwhile, the world deployed about 58% of the solar panels produced last year. “Solar panels are widely available and cheap as chips,” he said.

Carr disclosed that he has a financial interest in a family member’s solar panel company.

Electric vehicles were also cheap. Carr estimated that energy-only cost of a conventional car is about 25 cents a kilometre, whereas the energy-only cost of an electric cars is 5 cents a kilometre.

“We're not talking about a 10% discount. You're talking about an 80% discount.”

Canterbury needed “honest conversations” about water and the impacts of climate change. North Canterbury was going to get drier and the weather everywhere more unstable and unreliable, he said.

Meanwhile, about 60,000 tonnes a year of methane comes out of uncovered effluent ponds in New Zealand, mostly from dairy farms. In Europe, he said, effluent ponds were capped.

If New Zealand ponds were capped, carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by the equivalent of 2 million tonnes a year.

But agriculture was not in the emissions trading system and farmers “don't face an emissions price” and therefore had need to pay for capping technology, he said.

Carr was speaking at the launch of the Canterbury Mayoral Forum Climate Partnership Plan on Friday.

All 11 councils in the province, including Environment Canterbury, agreed to “work together and with others to support our transition to a thriving, climate-resilient, low-emissions region”.

The 46-page plan did not detract from the work the councils were already doing, but it “joins the dots” and “aligns work programmes, maximises efficiencies, and provides regional solutions to shared problems”, said Waimakariri district mayor Dan Gordon, who chaired the group that wrote the plan.

The councils contributed $1.47 million over three years for more planning, strategy and advocacy work.

“It’s welcoming to see Canterbury councils leading the way with a united, coherent, and enduring approach,” said climate change minister Simon Watts, who attended the launch.