An emissions reduction roadmap will help inform the district’s soon-to-be-revealed climate action plan.

Queenstown Lakes District Council’s (QLDC) 2022-2025 Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan is due to be made public for community engagement and feedback in March. 

The new plan will draw on a report created for QLDC which measures the ways the district could achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

The emissions reduction roadmap compares three pathways for emissions reductions: business as usual, modest change and high change.

Completed by Deta Consulting on behalf of QLDC, the roadmap shows that the areas of road transport, landfill, aviation and agriculture have the largest potential for emissions reductions.

QLDC communications and marketing advisor Sam White said the emissions reduction roadmap has helped inform the new climate action plan.

“The [emissions reduction roadmap] will be referenced in the introduction of the plan, and recommendations from it have informed the plan’s actions,” he said. 

“In particular, carbon budgets will be considered as part of the plan’s targets and measures.”

QLDC declared a climate and ecological emergency in June 2019 and by March 2020 the district’s first climate action plan (CAP) was formed to help to guide local action on climate change.

The overarching goals for the climate action plans are to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 across the whole district and to be resilient to the local impact of climate change across the district.

The 2022-2025 Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan will replace the existing climate action plan.

A draft of the plan will be released for public feedback later this month.

PHOTO: Wānaka App