Climate Action, Climate Leadership

Today (11 April 2017) was a pretty significant day for climate action and climate leadership in Auckland, New Zealand. Today, I sat with my colleagues in Auckland Council's Treasury team and presented a revised Responsible Investment Policy to the Council's Finance and Performance Committee. The policy sought to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations within the Council’s portfolio of investments, recognising that investments managed based on ESG issues will, over time, deliver better returns. The revised policy included requirements to divest from investments in companies with core business operations in:

• The manufacture or development of controversial weapons;
• The manufacture of tobacco;
• The production of fossil fuels; and
• The generation of revenue from gambling.

Adoption of the policy was approved by the committee by a significant majority and with that, Auckland joined the growing list of organisations sending a strong message to our communities, our businesses and our partners about the principles that will shape our investments and inform our activities more broadly.

The decision to divest from fossil fuels in particular comes at a time when urgency on global and New Zealand action on climate change is escalating. In November 2016, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a network of the world’s megacities including Sydney, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai and Auckland, launched its Deadline 2020 report. The report highlights that cities are critical to delivering a climate safe future and that the next four years will determine whether or not cities will be able to play their part in the achievement of the landmark United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP21 Paris Agreement. As a ‘steep decline’ city, Auckland is charged with rapidly reducing its greenhouse gas emissions due to its high per capita greenhouse gas emissions and high GDP. At a local level, the Net Zero in New Zealand report, commissioned by a cross-party group of MPs and launched last month, highlighted that emissions reduction pathways consistent with New Zealand’s commitments to the Paris Agreement are available, but require radical changes to our current land use patterns.

The divestment decision also reinforces Auckland Council’s broader commitments to take action on climate detailed within its Low Carbon Auckland Action Plan. The plan, which recently reported on its second year of action, targets a 10-20% reduction in Auckland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, rising to 40% by 2040. The second annual update report highlighted that the average greenhouse gas emission intensity decreased from 8.1 to 7.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita, indicating emissions may be decoupling from growth. 

Today was a memorable day for me, a momentous day for Auckland Council and a marvellous day for our climate.