Nelson public meeting
Thursday 9 November
Waste policy
Recycling, reuse and community
- The Timaru City Council recovery station looks like a good example. Why is there not one in Nelson?
- Government should be there to make it happen for small, remote places that cannot afford facilities.
- Businesses are focussed on operational savings, not environmental gains.
- Emphasise financial savings from recycling. Look at the Packaging Waste Recovery Notes (PRN) system in the UK.
- Kerbside recycling discourages people from reducing and reusing waste.
- Recycling is very expensive in Nelson
- Government’s role is to lead by example. Govt3 is not hitting regional offices. They have no money for recycling.
- A levy could be used to equalise the costs between recycling and waste. There is resistance from business as it seems there are many levies.
- More Dell eDays should be held in the regions.
National environmental standards
Air quality
- We need to be looking at PM2.5. Better public transport should be encouraged. Better urban design is needed.
- Is the smoky vehicles rule being enforced? How many people have been prosecuted?
General comments
- Solar heating should be promoted.
- Tobacco fields often have residual levels of DDT. This is not widely recognised.
- Many chemicals from the Mapua site were disposed of off-site e.g. on Rabbit Island, Tomos, and on farmers land.
- There are 1,100 houses in the coastal zone. Many people are not aware of the need for maintenance of septic tanks.
Water
Education and information
- The public needs to be educated so that they know water is a finite resource. People living in towns have little understanding of water conservation and efficiency.
- Community projects on local streams provide opportunities and prompting for people to change.
- Resource consents are often granted without knowledge of the water body – decisions are made on an ad-hoc basis.
Water allocation and usage
- Climate change needs to be factored into water allocation decisions and planning for sea level rise.
- Use resource rentals instead of tradable rights. At the moment we are losing too much water out of rivers. Tradable water rights create a danger in that they attach ‘ownership’ to water. Once people see water use as a right, they will not take the responsibility to be efficient.
- Does paying for water imply a right?
- Commercial users do not have to pay for the water they use. This should be looked at.
- In the Waimea Valley subdivisions have been allowed without requiring water efficiency measures. Local government needs to be strong with developers. More legislation is needed. A ‘legislative backbone’ is needed for the community to work effectively.
- A fundamental issue is that if water is cheap or free, people will always over use the resource. Gardens changed dramatically when water meters were introduced.
Flood risk management and catchment management
- Integrated Catchment Management in the Motueka Catchment is an example of the community and researchers working together and looking at land, water and coastal aspects.
- Flooding will destroy sewerage systems. Alternatives are needed such as composting toilets.
- Plan provisions (for example setbacks for buildings) are necessary for flood protection and management.
- Many streams and waterways in Nelson are highly modified and as such are unable to function properly as a stream. Waterways need to have more room to move.
General comments
- The quality and quantity of water need to be managed in an integrated way.
- Pine forestry produces acidic leachate and ruins the soil. Forestry should not just consist of pine trees – there are better ways of doing forestry. Forestry can reduce water yield in a catchment by up to 30%.
- Often different and even opposing groups want the same outcomes but for different reasons. There is great value in sitting around a table and discussing issues.
Climate change
Adaptation and mitigation
- There is concern about the focus on carbon sinks and sequestration. If we continue to mine coal and pump oil, how much can be sequestered? These details are uncertain and it is unsure whether sequestration is helpful in the long run. The technology for sequestration is not there, and if it were, it is too late.
- There is a time lag for research and development – implementation is too far away for technical fixes.
- There is very little focus on reforestation with native species, which would be preferable for biodiversity value.
- Internationally there is a lack of legislative requirements in the climate change mitigation area.
- Australia is quite forward thinking, e.g. with solar panels on houses. Why are there no government incentives for solar panels in New Zealand?
- The financial barriers to the adoption of new technology need to be addressed.
- In Missouri there was an investigation into nuclear power versus solar powered station. The solar energy savings alone were more than the energy required for the entire life of the nuclear station.
- Marlborough is a great place for solar energy as it gets lots of sunlight.
- It takes a huge amount of time and thought to design a fully autonomous house and there are few incentives to do so.
- One of the biggest problems for people is not knowing what they can do.
- There is concern that focusing on adaptation suggests accepting climate change as inevitable.
- People’s carbon footprints need to be priced into their everyday activities.
- Government can manage/manipulate opinion or lay out best options
- New Zealand is doing a lot better than some places
- There are no standards - regulatory measures are needed.
- Most of focus for regulation has been on leaky building syndrome – these regulations are much stronger than anything for sustainable building
- Long and costly consent processes deter people from choosing sustainable options, e.g. for water systems
- Regulations are needed to force accountants to internalise external costs. Internalising costs will lead to behavioural changes.
- The government needs to be bold. There is too much concern that actions should not be at the expense of convenience or lifestyle. We need to make changes to our lifestyle and suffer some inconvenience to address climate change. We need to take care, however, that we do not seriously disadvantage ourselves with trade.
- There is a feeling of individual powerlessness.
- Climate change is a matter of critical national and global interest.
- New Zealand is vulnerable to interruptions in the supply of oil. It is in our interest with peak oil approaching to get our liquid fuel usage down, from both an environmental and a safety point of view.
- Electricity and liquid fuel are separate issues and should be viewed as such.
- Possibility of a “carbon credit card” – shadow price, calculate carbon footprint on a daily basis. After 2 years or so begin to charge per unit
- People would rather hear the hard truth slowly with time to adapt.
- We need to downsize in steps. Use clever marketing to make it “fashionable”.
- Energy companies are not deeply interested in the customer becoming more independent. Net metering could be introduced tomorrow. Households could produce their own electricity and feed any excess back to the grid.
- There is the desire there, but not the money, for adopting more sustainable practices such as using treated effluent for irrigation. Assistance is required to get these sorts of things off the ground.
- The development focus locally is on cheap, affordable housing. This is being used as an excuse to use productive arable land. In the end these houses are not actually that affordable. A subdivision is currently being built on an estuary in Motueka.
- New Zealand has high chance of surviving in a changing planet if we make use of the opportunities and prepare for the risks.
- Retire land from agriculture to forests as a carbon sinks.
- The government should encourage installation of solar heating. New homes should be energy efficient.
- Money should be put towards solar energy systems rather than more generation and capacity.
- The government should purchase solar water heaters to encourage economies of scale and a lower unit cost.
- We need to price our carbon footprint.
- “Lifecycle costing” should be used to ensure cheap and nasty energy hungry building does not prevail.
Education and information
- Awareness of climate change in New Zealand and Australia is increasing. Around 60% of people are prepared to pay more to mitigate global warming. How do we make the quantum leap of translating awareness in to action?
- Messages need to come from central and local government. People need to be able to visualise what the impacts of climate change are likely to be at a local level. Climate change needs to be made real for people.
- The best form of education is daily reinforcement.
- People need good modelling information.
- A focus on regional issues is needed, including a “helicopter view” of what climate change means. People need to get their heads around it, e.g. what climate change means for salt water intrusion and protecting productive land at a regional level.
- There has been upsurge in email enquiries about climate change at the Environment Centre – still at “informing” stage – feedback that Al Gore’s mitigation measures are not enough. Is a local carbon reduction league
- More information should be provided on the regional impacts of climate change, including modelling, etc.
Transport
- People are becoming accustomed to a rural/residential lifestyle but are still dependent on cities. It will take time for a shift to regions. In the meantime, commuter transport options are needed
- Public transport needs to be used to be viable, e.g. the Takaka bus is not fully utilised and there are often only one or two people on it.
- Public transport needs to be snazzy, convenient, and well marketed.
General comments
- We have an obligation to incorporate the Treaty of Waitangi into policy – there have been a lot of discussion and workshops but no real outcome.
- Tangata Whenua have 1000 + years of knowledge about the environment.
Environmental reporting
General comments
- Better standards are needed, which everybody follows.
- Indicators do not lead into management planning.
- How is the airshed being addressed? What can we do?
- There are gaps in information and competition between regions.
- A summary state of the environment document is needed.
General interest
Aquaculture
- MfE should continue with aquaculture implementation – particularly in the Nelson/Tasman area. Tasman should be one of the top priority areas.
Transport
- Public transport is needed between Nelson and Richmond. Government assistance is needed to facilitate this. Nelson patronage of existing buses is very low. Cycling is also down. A huge ratepayer subsidy will be required to increase the bus service, but this will be needed in the longer run.
Air quality
- There is concern at the requirement to meet the PM10 Standard by 2013. The government should provide funds to assist people to change their heating to cleaner forms.
- Solar heating installation should be made easier and low cost.
- Assistance was requested with warmer homes generally.
- What can people do to reduce their carbon use? Ten point guidelines were requested.
- The public will need help to meet the new wood burner standards. Government subsidies would be appreciated.
Climate change
- The use of methyl bromide for fumigation at the port is a serious local issue. Fumigation more generally is an important national issue that needs to be addressed.
- Biosecurity risks as a result of climate change are a concern. New organisms that previously could not survive in New Zealand may be able to do so in future
- All the coal from a new local coal mine will be exported but the effects of the greenhouse gases produced from burning the coal are global. It is concerning that New Zealand still allows new mines.
- It is good to see so many councils involved in the communities for climate change programme. There is concern that the local council has decided not to join in.
- Is the Ministry looking at how tourism will affect climate change?
- A long term focus is needed to address climate change, not just 5-10 years ahead.
- Will there be legislation to address climate change and will it be enforced?
- How can New Zealand offset carbon emissions from tourism? Tourists could perhaps put money towards offsetting emissions.
- People should pay into a relief fund for international relief for climate change impacted areas such as Bangladesh.
General comments
- It is pleasing to see action on the clean up of the Mapua contaminated site after so long.
- Flood management need to be considered when thinking about where to build.
- Who is liable for flood risk? How do you change people’s behaviours?
- Riparian areas of farms should be planted out and used as flood buffer zones. Incentives should be provided to farmers to change land use practices on riparian zones.
- How will storm water management be impacted by climate change?
- Water supply is a key issue for the future.
- People were not given a choice of alternatives to 1080.
Last updated: 27 February 2008
