‘Failed to deliver’: Napier City Council leaves regional climate committee

Napier City Council deputy mayor Annette Brosnan speaking in favour of the motion to withdraw from the Climate Action Joint Committee.

Napier City Council has withdrawn from the region’s Climate Action Joint Committee.

Deputy mayor Annette Brosnan said the committee - made up of 20 representatives from the region’s councils - was an “ineffective structure with little to show to date for its existence”.

Brosnan supported withdrawing from the committee “not because climate action is unimportant but because Napier needs a sharper more effective and locally focused approach to achieving real climate results”.

After a lengthy debate at Thursday’s council meeting, councillors voted 8/5 in favour of leaving the committee.

Brosnan and Councillor Hayley Browne were Napier’s appointed committee members.

Mayor Kirsten Wise said the council was committed to climate change action.

“Our priority is our local community, as has been demonstrated by the work we have already done in this space.”

Council papers say leaving the committee will save $55,900 to $68,900 annually.

Browne referred to the work about to be delivered by the committee and queried the timing of the debate before councillors were able to see what it had been working on.

She said the regional risk assessment has been completed in record time for New Zealand.

Brosnan said when she joined the CAJC it was with a vision of regional co-operation delivering meaningful climate action, advocacy and action plans for adaptation and mitigation.

“Two plus years in this vision, in my view, has not been realised. Instead, the committee has been an ineffective structure with little to show to date for its existence,” Brosnan said.

She said it was not her intention to be disparaging and her view was not based on or about any individual. She acknowledged the hard work of staff and the passion and commitment of Napier’s representative Browne in a complex and difficult space.

She said the Climate Risk Assessment Tool and report, which is about to be released, was good work.

“However, it is a long time coming, technical report arguably not requiring heavy governance oversight, certainly not 20 plus people and just one of many outputs that was promised by the committee.

She said the report was a “regurgitation” of all existing high-quality information.

“After spending time on the committee I cannot put my hand on my heart and say this is money well spent.

“It has been increasingly frustrating to be a part of.

“We saw the chair resign, many members resign, poor attendance, committee meetings talked, in my few, in circles, off-topic and to no conclusion, to a point where I have struggled to find or add value.

“The committee has ultimately failed to deliver enough, it has pivoted, delayed and ultimately underperformed in my view.”

Browne acknowledged that the work was hard, and frustrating, but said that wasn’t a good reason for walking away from it.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.