Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Under Council’s Financially Sustainable strategic priority a comprehensive organisational greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory was prepared using 2023 data and in alignment with the ISO14064 reporting standard.

This inventory was independently verified, ensuring it was accurate and included all material emission sources, and now forms Napier City Council’s baseline for reporting purposes.

Council’s activities in 2023 resulted in 36,112 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. This includes the energy council uses in its facilities, buildings and streetlights, the petrol and diesel used by vehicles and equipment, wastewater treatment, farming at Lagoon Farm, waste going to landfill, emissions associated with building and maintaining infrastructure, delivering services like kerbside waste and recycling collections, and the procurement of goods and services.

In 2022 Napier City’s community emissions were 443,000 tonnes or 10% of the total Hawkes Bay region’s emissions. Napier City Council’s organisational emissions at 36,112 tonnes make up about 8 percent of Napier’s City’s total emissions each year.

On a per capita basis this is 6.5 tonnes of CO2e, or the equivalent of two return flights from Auckland to London for every single person in Napier. International recommendations are that per capita emissions need to reduce to around 3 tonnes per person, to be in alignment with the global targets and limits for a liveable planet.

The top three emission sources for Napier City are transport (57%), stationery energy (27%) and waste (7%). Fortunately, technology and consumer behaviour change solutions are available to address the majority of transport emissions and renewable energy resources are available to address many stationery energy needs.

You can find Napier City Council’s 2023 greenhouse gas inventory here.

You can find Hawke's Bay's Community Carbon Footprint 2021/22 here.

Our targets

In August 2024 Council Elected Members approved Napier City Council’s first Emission Reduction Plan (ERP) along with long-term and interim emission reduction targets.

The ERP is the result of work over the previous twelve months. This included completion of an independently verified greenhouse gas inventory, which informed Council’s emission reduction targets and the 30 action points that make up the initial ERP.

Council’s proposed long-term and interim emission reduction targets are net zero by 2050 and a 63% reduction in emissions by 2035 respectively. The ERP outlines 30 measurable actions that will start Council on the journey of reducing NCC’s operational emissions to net zero and facilitate a reduction in Napier’s community emissions.

In general, emission reduction actions should save ratepayers money as Council focuses on energy efficiency, phasing out expensive fossil fuels, minimising waste and using equipment with proven lower total costs of ownership. These are things such as heat pumps, LED lighting, and electric and hybrid vehicles.

Our emissions reduction plan brings together many projects already underway for other reasons. It will be a living document that develops as our understanding of our emissions improves and as new technologies, government initiatives and community priorities evolve.

Now that Council has approved the ERP, the next steps will be implementing the actions, especially those in the area of leadership, which will be a priority across all areas of Council.

You can read our first Emission Reduction Plan here.