Pānui - October 2024
Tēnā koutou ngā kaipānui o tēnei reta, the focus for Climate Action Aotearoa this quarter is the third of our seven commitments of the Funders Commitment on Climate Action - Enable leadership.
“We, the undersigned, commit to supporting and growing the leadership in our communities, especially in tangata whenua, rangatahi and marginalised communities to accelerate an equitable transition. We will actively support community-led action and systems change to enable an equitable transition.”
Climate Co-leads update:
We have a bunch of new resources online - from webinars, profile pieces, news stories and educational documents to boost your understanding and support your progress along your climate action journey. Check out our website to stay up to date.
Our latest resource ‘Climate Advocacy’ dives into what climate advocacy is, what it can look like and why community trusts and other philanthropic funders should support advocacy.
Special acknowledgements to The Clare Foundation and BayTrust who shared their valuable learnings and experiences with funding advocacy. Their contributions to this resource mean that if you’re looking to fund advocacy, you don't need to start from ground zero.
Our latest resource ‘Climate Advocacy’ dives into what climate advocacy is, what it can look like and why community trusts and other philanthropic funders should support advocacy.
Special acknowledgements to The Clare Foundation and BayTrust who shared their valuable learnings and experiences with funding advocacy. Their contributions to this resource mean that if you’re looking to fund advocacy, you don't need to start from ground zero.
Enabling Leadership
Trust Waikato has released its second Sustainability Report - and it is worth the read.
The report highlights that in the last year, Trust Waikato have given over one million to climate action initiatives, offset emissions to be carbon-positive for the first time, signed up to the Aotearoa NZ stewardship code, hosted a Te Tiriti o Waitangi workshop and made progress towards a tika transition, with 27% of grants focused on serving māori and ethnic groups. Ka wani kē koutou.
Read the full report here: https://trustwaikato.co.nz/about-us/reports/
Watch this: In this webinar Climate Action Aotearoa sits down with Dennis Turton, Chief Executive of Trust Waikato to discuss the learnings and success stories of their climate action journey - with a particular focus on decarbonising investments.
Dennis has some advice for those just starting on their climate journey - “start, just start.”
Watch time: 13 minutes.
An insightful kōrero for your board. Watch here.
News:
'Significant risk': Delaying climate deals could cost five times more
RNZ writes: Officials have warned Climate Change Minister Simon Watts of a cost blowout if the government does not get moving on signing international climate deals.
The 2015 Paris Agreement allows governments and companies to offset some of their greenhouse gas emissions by paying for work to cut climate pollutants elsewhere.
To meet its international commitments, the government needs to secure almost 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide savings from other countries before 2030, to top up savings inside the country by transport, industry and other emitters.
Advice released to RNZ under the Official Information Act said delaying buying these international offsets until closer to 2030 would be expected to see the price rise to five times the cost they could be bought for today.
Coastal Wetland Blue Carbon Policy Research in Aotearoa
The Coastal Wetland Blue Carbon Policy Research in Aotearoa report was funded by The Nature Conservancy Aotearoa New Zealand and the Ministry for the Environment and was commissioned to look at the barriers and opportunities for enabling blue carbon projects in New Zealand to participate in blue carbon markets.
The revenue from blue carbon credits could support landholders of restoration projects, turning conservation into sustainable and profitable livelihoods for local communities. Enabling blue carbon projects to participate in international markets will help communities, landowners and mana whenua build resilience to climate change.Find out more here.
RNZ explores if our ‘Coastal restoration could be a crucial carbon sink’. They sit down with Olya Albot, project manager at The Nature Conservancy to talk about the potential for a blue carbon market in this country.
Listen time: 16 minutes.
An Opinion Piece from The Spin Off says NZ isn’t doing enough to fund Climate Action.
“When we calculate emissions since 1850, New Zealand’s fair share increases, because of the impact of deforestation that was caused by colonisation, and the impact of the agriculture sector,” Yates says. The numbers aren’t inspiring: based on the 1992 calculation, New Zealand’s $325m pledged contribution to climate finance was 58% of a fair contribution. But when emissions since 1850 are taken into account, New Zealand’s pledge is barely a third of what we’re responsible for, at 34%. It’s one of the many climate commitments New Zealand isn’t currently meeting.” Says Olivia Yates, a climate change researcher at World Vision.
Turn Rubber into Resources
New Zealand’s first national tyre recycling scheme is now fully operational.
“The first priority product stewardship scheme for end-of-life tyres marks a significant step toward addressing a long-standing issue for our country. Every year, New Zealand imports around 6.5 million tyres. Of these, only about 40 per cent are recycled, reprocessed or exported. The remainder often end up in landfills, stockpiles, or are illegally dumped. This not only wastes a valuable resource, but it also places a heavy burden on local communities and councils who are usually left to handle the cleanup. This will change under the new scheme.” Says Environment Minister Penny Simmonds.
Find out more here: https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/turning-rubber-resources
Sharing Success Stories:
300,000ha, 500 Native Species, One Whenua
The Kaimai Mamaku forests and catchments cover almost 300,000 hectares across the Bay of Plenty and Waikato and are home to over 500 native species of plants, birds, frogs, bats and invertebrates – but large-scale canopy collapse is a very real threat.
BayTrust is currently co-funding five iwi-hapū project teams, each of whom is undertaking pest and predator control in different areas within the forests. Over the past three years, $300,000 has been granted by BayTrust and a further $25,000 has just been announced for Ngāti Kearoa Ngāti Tuara’s ‘Te Whakamaru o Horohoro’ project which is working to protect the long-tailed pekapeka (bat), kākā and kōkako by eradicating feral cats, rats, possums and stoats.
Rotorua iwi wage war against wallabies.
Up to one million elusive wallabies are believed to live in and around Rotorua’s treasured lakes. Their voracious appetites (and that of other pests) are stripping native forests bare, leaving some areas on the brink of environmental collapse.
“We’re waging the war and trying to keep control of these pest numbers to protect our forests. We can't just throw our hands in the air and say it’s all too hard. You’ve just got to get out there and do something before it’s too late.” says Kāhui Chair, Cyrus Hingston.
Bay Trust has pitched in $30,000 towards operational costs for the pest-control group.
Ngā mihi o te wā: We would love to hear from you! Please reach out to share any learnings, stories, news or useful resources. We would love to socialise this with the network.
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Ngā manaakitanga,
Arohanui and Esther
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