Climate change and energy

The Auckland Regional Council is currently developing a Regional Response to Climate Change and a Regional Energy Strategy. These documents will be released in November 2009 as part of the suite of work linked to the release of the review of the Regional Policy Statement. There will be opportunities for you to comment on this work.

What the reports will contain

Two of the leading environmental sustainability challenges facing the region are climate change and energy. Addressing the regional response to these issues, given the magnitude of the challenges and recent central government legislation has become critical.

The ARC has a considerable working history and presence in many areas of environmental sustainability. However, the establishment of a dedicated work programme enables more efficient integration of regional thinking, planning and investment and actions to accelerate the achievement of both regional (e.g. Auckland Sustainability Framework) and national (e.g. Kyoto Protocol) goals.

The ARC will lead two dedicated working groups - involving local government, stakeholders and others - to coordinate regional initiatives in climate change and energy to:

• Accelerate greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to achieve national and regional goals.
• Facilitate the development of renewable technologies and the uptake of energy efficiency options
• Improve the resilience of our natural and physical environments to adapt to climate impacts
• Assess the effect of energy trends on community affordability and equity
• Enhance the security of regional supply
• Demonstrate leadership by implementing solutions for the region via a number of projects (such as the Rugby World Cup 2011).

Through the two Regional Working Groups we will deliver 2 major outputs:

• A regional response to Climate Change which will define the role of the ARC and other stakeholders in leading, accelerating and addressing pivotal regional actions in adaptation, mitigation and reporting /accounting and
• A Regional energy Strategy which will definite the role of the ARC and other stakeholders in leading and addressing pivotal regional actions in efficiency/ renewables, security of supply and affordability/equity.

Where we're at

Over the next few months reports on specific areas giving more detail on the kind of content being developed for the Auckland Regional Policy Statement and the relevant climate change and energy strategies will be made available on the website. Mostly these will be reports to meetings of the Regional Strategy and Planning Committee. You will be able to access these from here.

The final reports are scheduled for release in November 2009.