“There are things in this community that could reduce emissions.
“Either they aren’t coming forward, or we aren’t being proactive enough in going out and finding out where emissions are being generated in this community and starting to address it.”
Councillor Josh Chandulal-Mackay said council climate initiatives shouldn’t be looked at in isolation because they were part of a broader strategy.
Reducing emissions wasn’t the only part of it.
Charlotte Melser says the process for selecting funding recipients was diligent. Photo / Bevan Conley
He said he must have been looking at a different list of funding recipients from Vinsen.
“What I see here is a whole range of initiatives that will, in the long term, have an impact on emissions.
“To pluck out one of them - House of Science, [which provides] climate change kits for schools.
“We know if we educate the next generation around the impacts of climate change and what they can do to reduce emissions and prepare for it, that has long-term, downstream consequences.”
Councillor Charlotte Melser said if Vinsen’s comments had been made 40 years ago, current climate work might not be needed so desperately.
She said selecting the funding recipients was a very diligent process.
All applications were assessed by a funding panel, which made recommendations to fund eight projects.
The projects were then approved by the council’s sustainability and waste advisery group.
According to the council’s website, the aim of the fund is “to support the community to develop projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or grow our community’s resilience to the impacts of climate change”.
Whanganui Deputy Mayor Helen Craig said every budget line would be looked at during discussions on the council’s Long Term Plan.
“That is a really good place for councillors to bring their robust arguments and commentary.”
Committee chairwoman Jenny Duncan said despite mitigation work, the community would have to face the consequences of climate change, and “that leaves us with adaptation”.
“When I look at them [recipients] individually, I see where they could go and I see what the outcomes could be.
“I think it’s absolutely critical.”
Tarapuruhi Bushy Park received the most funding this year at $20,000, followed by Woven Rivers Trust ($18,500 for work on reforestation, gardening for food and course co-ordination), Heritage Food Crops Research Trust ($17,500 to promote community food resilience and knowledge through school and community workshops and visits), the Eco School ($11,500 for advice and education on energy-efficient housing and resilient land management), A Rocha Aotearoa ($10,500 to enable church communities to participate in and lead climate action) Ngapera-Kehu Ahu Whenua Trust ($10,000 for a wetland development project), Sustainable Whanganui Trust ($9000 to share and promote projects and activities to encourage more community participation in sustainability) and House of Science ($3000 for climate change science kits for schools).
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
