Climate Change - Carbon Neutrality

Wellington beach

Wellington City Council wants to make Wellington one of the first carbon neutral cities in the world.

Achieving carbon neutrality is an ambitious but necessary vision to help future-proof the city against the environmental, social and economic impacts of climate change, and to contribute to improving the global environment.

To achieve carbon neutrality, the city - including the Council and the community - must reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible. In December 2007 the Council agreed a goal of 2012 for achieving carbon neutrality for its own activities.

Carbon Credits

Carbon neutrality is achieved when the volume of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere balances the amount that is absorbed by the environment.

Wellington will reduce its emissions as much as possible. Over time, it will become more effective at emissions reduction.

The city will also undertake activities to capture, or increase the absorption of emissions in Wellington. Alternatively, offsetting can be used to generate credits to earn funding to support further reduction initiatives.

If there are still some emissions remaining, these can be offset - or compensated for - by purchasing carbon credits. This involves paying others to undertake activities that have a positive impact on the environment to balance against some of Wellington's emissions.

Although offsets, or carbon credits, do not actually reduce emissions, they will be a significant early factor in achieving carbon neutrality for Wellington.

Carbon Footprint

Evening traffic

The city is measuring its carbon footprint - the extent of its greenhouse gas emissions - as its first step towards achieving carbon neutrality.

To achieve carbon neutrality, the Council will follow five basic steps:

Step 1: Measure the carbon emissions footprint - the Council is having this done for its own activities, and for the city as a whole.
Step 2: Reduce emissions as far as possible.
Step 3: Capture as many remaining emissions as possible - some offsetting can earn carbon credits. Offsetting that does not earn credits is still really important.
Step 4: Buy credits to cover unmanageable emissions while aiming to earn extra credits as a seller rather than a buyer.
Step 5: Think globally - unmanaged emissions may cause unsustainable impacts. Such impacts may be in places far away from the emissions source.

Much effort will focus on more efficient energy use to reduce consumption. The move towards renewable energy sources - such as wind farms, marine energy and bio-fuels - is underway and will play an important role.

Carbon Zero

If Wellington could capture all remaining emissions at Step 3, it would achieve an emissions balance of zero and be considered 'carbon zero'.

With Step 4, Wellington would qualify as 'carbon neutral', even though some emissions were being offset outside the city.

Earning Carbon Credits

Native bush

The Council would earn most of its carbon credits for forests and greenbelt plantings that qualify under the international agreements in the Kyoto Protocol. The Council is working to measure its eligible land.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, effective emissions management is rewarded with certificates for carbon sink credits or emissions units. Individual governments decide how to allocate these credits in their own country.

While the New Zealand Government has yet to finalise the legislation around the allocation of carbon credits, it launched a programme in December 2007 - the Permanent Forest Sink Initiative - promoting the establishment of forests that comply with the Kyoto Protocol.

Community Credits

For the city to be successful with carbon neutrality, the whole community will have to participate in reducing greenhouse emissions. Little changes will collectively make a difference.

Some businesses and individuals - such as farmers - will be able to earn carbon credits for their activities. Individually-owned credits will benefit the whole community because they will help the city to balance its emissions.

There are various ways of earning credits. Authenticated surplus credits can be traded.

Climate Change Tools - carboNZero website