Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitū te whenua
As man disappears from sight, the land remains
We want to show leadership by considering climate change in all of our decisions, and throughout our work across the district.
We want to support our communities by ensuring that the infrastructure and services we provide promote resilience - the ability to recover quickly from difficulties.
We are a Toitū carbonreduce® certified organisation in line with ISO 14064-1, learn more about this certification.
Climate change is a key strategic issue for the Council. The Whakatāne District Plan gives particular regard to the effects of climate change, and climate change is a key priority in the Long Term Plan 2018-28. Climate change is identified as a planning assumption and a risk in the Infrastructure Strategy 2018-48 - (PDF, 2.7 MB).
In 2017, we signed the New Zealand Local Government Leaders' Climate Change Declaration. This committed us to put into place ambitious action plans to reduce GHG emissions, and to build the ability of our organisation and the community to recover quickly from difficulties.
In September 2019, we adopted a set of climate change principles to guide our decision-making and support our future work.
In September 2020, continuing the work set by the principles, we adopted a climate change strategy and six action plans. The strategy, together with the action plans, is our roadmap for reaching our climate change targets and show the specific steps we will take to get there.
We have several projects completed or underway which are related to mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. Expand the headings below for a list of some of these projects.
We acknowledge that the future is uncertain. However, as we learn more about climate change and how it will impact us as an organisation and a community, we will continue to take steps to ensure that the Whakatāne District remains the place of choice to live, work, and play for generations to come.
Whakatāne District Council Climate Change Principles (format PDF / 2 MB)2021/22 Whakatāne District Community Carbon Footprint (format PDF / 2 MB)Whakatāne District Council Energy Audit 2022 (format PDF / 2 MB)Whakatāne District Council Energy Audit 2019 (format PDF / 5 MB)Whakatāne District Council Climate Change Strategy (format PDF / 5 MB)Targets Fact Sheet (format PDF / 210 KB)Whakatane District Council Climate Change Action Plan: Leadership and collaboration (format PDF / 840 KB)Whakatane District Council Climate Change Action Plan: Transport (format PDF / 1 MB)Whakatane District Council Climate Change Action Plan: Energy (format PDF / 779 KB)Whakatane District Council Climate Change Action Plan: Water services (format PDF / 753 KB)Whakatane District Council Climate Change Action Plan: Waste and circular economies (format PDF / 866 KB)Whakatane District Council Climate Change Action Plan: Land use and the built environment (format PDF / 855 KB)Council's biodiversity credit submission to central government (format PDF / 233 KB)Council's cover letter to biodiversity credit submission (format PDF / 60 KB)