Transport accounts for 24 per cent of Whanganui's greenhouse gas emissions. Photo / File
Transport accounts for 24 per cent of Whanganui's greenhouse gas emissions. Photo / File
The 47,000 people in the Whanganui District each added an average 19.3 tonnes of climate-changing greenhouse gas to the world's atmosphere in 2019.
And because much of its land is farmed, most of those gases were methane from the digestion of sheep and cattle, rather than carbon dioxide from burning petrol and diesel.
Horizons Regional Council commissioned international infrastructure firm AECOM to provide reports on greenhouse gas emissions from each of the seven councils across the region and presented them to Whanganui District Council's infrastructure, climate change and emergency management committee this month.
Whanganui's per capita emissions are lower than those for more agricultural districts like Tararua (94.4 tonnes per person per year) and Rangitīkei (97.2 tonnes per person per year) - but higher than those of more urban areas like Palmerston North (10.3 tonnes per person per year).
Whanganui produced 11 per cent of the Horizons region's emissions in 2019, and the region's emissions are slightly above the national average. However, they fell 2 per cent between 2007 and 2018, mainly because more trees were storing carbon.
Agriculture provides 7.2 per cent of Whanganui District GDP and employs 5.9 per cent of our people - but it also produces 57 per cent of the district's greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report.
Of those emissions, 98 per cent come from livestock. That figure includes 54 per cent from sheep, 26 per cent from beef cattle and 17 per cent from dairy cattle.
Whanganui's sheep are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Photo / Bevan Conley
Council contractor Charlotte Almond held a climate change workshop for the rural sector last week and said there was "some concern about the way the agricultural sector is perceived within [the report]".
"They are feeling a little under the pump, given the size of their emissions," she said.
She said farmers preferred to have the numbers framed as emissions per tonne of product.
"That might give a more realistic picture of what the sector has achieved and how it has reduced emissions and increased productivity," Almond said.
"Planting trees is a good thing, but we have to make sure we're not losing too much productivity, employment and social cohesion. So we will be mindful of that."
Transport is the district's second-biggest source of emissions - 24 per cent. Almost all of that is from burning petrol and diesel to run vehicles. It is evenly weighted between petrol and diesel, used both on and off roads.
The energy used to run houses, schools, industry and shops, categorised as stationary energy in the AECOM report, makes up another 14 per cent of our emissions. Of that, 2 per cent is used in houses and 9 per cent in industry.
Three per cent of our emissions are from solid waste and wastewater - mainly methane gas again.
The number of trees actively growing in the district reduces our net contribution toward climate change because they actively store 125,877 more tonnes of carbon than were felled in harvests in 2019.
Most of that carbon is stored in exotic forest, and it reduced our total contribution to climate change by 14 per cent.
Horizons' action plan towards a climate-resilient region says region temperatures are likely to rise 0.7C to 1.1C by 2040, and up to 3.1C by 2090.
By 2090 the average rainfall in the north of the region is predicted to increase 15-20 per cent and it is predicted to decrease 20 per cent in the southeast.
