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Communities for Climate Protection

Council joined the Communities for Climate Protection™ New Zealand (CCP™-NZ) in October 2004. The CCP™-NZ programme is a world-wide campaign and provides a strategic framework through which councils and their communities can take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The programme aims to reduce emissions from each council's own actions, as well as influence reductions in our wider communities. In order to assist councils and their communities address climate change the programme consists of five key milestones.

Each milestone has an internal council component and a community component.

Milestone 1 – Conduct an inventory and forecast for greenhouse gas emissions.

Milestone 2 – Establish emission reduction goals.

Milestone 3 – Develop and adopt a local action plan.

Milestone 4 – Implement the local action plan.

Milestone 5 – Monitor and report on achievements.

Milestone 1

In July 2005 Council undertook an initial inventory of greenhouse gas emissions using the 2000/01 financial year as Hamilton's baseline year. Emissions were categorised as either 'corporate' (directly from Council activities) in origin or 'community' in origin. The inventory has shown that Council's greenhouse gas emissions were 9,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2000/01. For the wider community, greenhouse gas emissions were estimated to be 1,144,000 tonnes on CO2e in 2000/01 and based on statistical information are forecast to rise to 1,301,000 tonnes of CO2e in 2009/10 (a 14 per cent increase).

On 1 November 2006 Council adopted Milestones 2 and 3 – reduction goals and a Local Action Plan – to help Hamilton address its greenhouse gas emissions.

Milestone 2

Council's Goals:

  • By 2010 slow the rate of greenhouse gas emissions from Council (corporate) activities to an 11% increase on 2001 levels, compared to the 62% increase in 2004.
  • By 2020 achieve a 20% reduction on 2001 levels.

Community's Goals:

  • Stabilisation of greenhouse gas emissions for the community of Hamilton at 2001 levels by 2020.
Milestone 3

Hamilton's Local Action Plan on Global Warming is a mechanism for Council to achieve its reduction targets committed to in Milestone 2. It is Council's blueprint for putting together a set of effective and practical measures to use renewable energy, use energy more efficiently and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated from council operations and from the community, in line with NZ's international and national commitments.

It will help to improve the city's liveability through sustainable resource use, minimising our contributions to global warming, and infrastructure planning that accommodates climate change.