The last few days have been utterly crushing for Big Oil.
The federal court of Australia has found the environment minister, Sussan Ley, has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis in a judgment hailed by lawyers and teenagers who brought the case as a world first.
Read More »Waikato Regional Council (WRC) plans to install solar panels on its Paeroa office. The estimated cost savings in the first year is $4745 and the net savings over 25 years is $101,623. An estimated 83 tons of CO2 equivalent will be avoided over 25 years.
The cost of the installation is $35,000 with an estimated payback period of just seven years.
Solar panels are also included in the construction budget for the new Regional Council building in Tristram Street, Hamilton which is scheduled to open next week.
Whenever Thames-Coromandel District Council (TCDC) has debated whether it should take action on climate change to reduce emissions the argument has been made by some that there will be enormous unknown costs to ratepayers.
WRC have shown that the opposite is true. Action on climate change can achieve significant reductions in emissions whilst at the same time achieving impressive savings for ratepayers.
As directed by the High Court when it found that Council’s previous decisions were unlawful, TCDC is soon to begin public consultation on climate change. WRC’s leadership on climate action shows that councils can have a win win with prudent financial management AND also reduce emissions.
Solar power generation costs are falling rapidly as is evidenced by plans for a large solar farm near Whitianga.
A new company Lodestone Energy has unveiled plans to build five solar energy farms in the upper North Island at a cost of $300 million, including one near Whitianga. This is great news for the security of electricity supply in Thames Coromandel, as it will decrease reliance on electricity generated outside of the district. It confirms that renewable solar is cost competitive with other options, will serve to potentially lower electricity costs and produce 40-80 jobs during the 12 month construction phase.
Read More »Often we hear from short-term “thinking” local body politicians that they couldn’t possibly sign the Climate Declaration or take action to reduce emissions because the costs could be high. There is always some excuse for inaction on the climate crisis. Its Covid 19 , or dairy prices are too low, or rates will go up.
Read More »The uninformed will often say that it is just too hard to rapidly begin to convert our fleet to electric vehicles. Actually, as Norway have shown, it’s quite easy.
