Twelve of the 67 councils around the country have declared a climate emergency, Whanganui among them.
Whanganui candidate and incumbent mayor Hamish McDouall described climate change as "the biggest challenge of all of our lives".
"Council has a responsibility to reduce its emissions, but also to encourage and educate the community about how we can all mitigate the effects of environmental degradation. We need to mitigate, but also lead adaptation to the new future."
One of the two challengers to McDouall's mayoralty, DC Harding, said ratepayers should be working together to ensure that Whanganui is sustainable into the future.
One potential idea could be creating a business from composting and investing profit back into the community, he said.
Fellow contender, Andrew Tripe, told Local Democracy Reporting that looking after Papatūānuku was a duty of all people of Aotearoa.
"A first step in climate change initiatives is to understand and adopt the principles of kaitiakitanga. The next step is to decide and then deliver climate change initiatives," Tripe said.
Rangitīkei candidate and incumbent mayor Andy Watson said the country has signed up to the climate accords and must honour that.
"It is the greatest challenge or threat to our generation. Trucking fleets will change and I note that Daimler/Mercedes will not be producing internal combustion engines after 2039. As a council we must look to include emission standards in our procurement contracts."
One of Watson's three challengers, Simon Loudon, said initiatives like zero waste were an effective long-term solution to waste management.
"We could be developing options for better transport connections with our neighbouring towns and cities. Council should be leading such projects."
In Ruapehu, four candidates are vying for the mayoralty. Both Māori candidates were fully behind climate change action.
"That is a definite 200 per cent yes," Fiona Kahukura Hadley-Chase said.
"All of us need to do our part to mitigate climate change. Council has a unique position to build a regional plan from the mountains to the sea, working with tangata whenua to ensure it's a continuous action plan and not another shelved paper plan."
Elijah Pue said it shouldn't be seen as "spending ratepayer money".
"It should be seen as an investment in our future. Climate change is real. Let's get real about the climate emergency and come up with a plan."
Weston Kirton said most responsibility lies with regional and central government.
"However, we can do more to back local public transport. Bringing the district back into the national rail network should be a priority.
"We also need to prepare for the impact of more frequent severe rain and extreme weather events. But we are a large district with a small population and Government needs to shoulder some of the costs here."
Adie Doyle was the only candidate firmly against spending on climate change initiatives.
The Ruapehu mayoral contender said of the 196 countries in the world, just 10 account for 75 per cent of emissions, and three countries account for 50 per cent of emissions.
"Council should utilise its limited resources in reducing pollution and waste to landfill. It should also invest in climate adaptation, not man-made climate change," Doyle said.
In South Taranaki, incumbent Phil Nixon said councils should invest in transport and organic waste to keep it out of landfills.
"We are collectively (councils, iwi, businesses and residents) developing some really good initiatives to achieve this regionally in Taranaki."
But he did not agree with moving transport fleets to fully electric at this stage – a mix would be better, he said.
The survey was sent out to all 291 mayoral candidates and garnered 202 responses, representing a 69 per cent response rate.
