What's in the Plan
Community Empowerment
A climate change-aware community, empowered and supported to act. How we ensure our plan does not increase current inequities in our district but helps build a more resilient and fair community.
Goal
Building mana-enhancing relationships to support connected communities to be more resilient to climate impacts.
Sub-goals
- Build empowered community networks that help to sustain the Climate Action Plan and other initiatives, whilst informing future action plans.
- Provide meaningful support to community change projects that inform, educate and inspire climate action.
- Implement actions to reduce the impacts of climate change on health and well-being.
Action categories
- Council to promote community leadership
- Council to support community initiatives
- Council to facilitate climate change education
20-Minute Town
How we move around the district using less climate-harming emissions. Creating accessible, safe areas where people can access most of their everyday needs in a 20-minute walk, cycle or local public transport trip, allowing them to rely less on motor vehicles.
Goal
Increase uptake of low-emission, active and public transport options so that community/suburb hubs are accessible within 10 minutes for all urban residents.
Sub-goals
- Masterton District Council reduces its own organisational carbon footprint from transport.
- Masterton District Council supports the community to transition to low-emission transport.
- Improve the public transport network (buses, shuttles, and trains).
- Build well-designed streets and roads that minimise transport emissions.
- Improved active transport networks (footpaths, cycleways, and walking tracks) to encourage alternative modes of transport.
Action categories
- Cycling
- Walking, wheelchairs, prams, scooters.
- Public Transport
- Electric Vehicles (EVs
Circular Economy
How we reduce our consumption and repurpose old items. How we embed principles of the circular economy into our district at every level.
Goal
Reduce Masterton District’s contribution to methane emissions from landfills.
Sub-goals
- Keep organic waste out of landfills to reduce methane emissions.
- Masterton District Council is a role model and educator about reducing waste in the District.
- Masterton District Council supports climate outcomes within local waste reduction initiatives.
Action categories
- Organic (green and food) waste
- Circular economy principles
- Building/infrastructure waste
Climate Resilient District
How we adapt to increasingly severe floods, droughts, storms, and changes in precipitation rates. How we power our homes and businesses through renewable energy, design and retrofit for low-emission construction, and create infrastructure that is resilient to climate impacts. How we protect our native biodiversity through climate solutions and take a coordinated approach to tackling climate change in the Greater Wellington Region.
Goal
Ensure the resilience of our district infrastructure, productive landscapes, and natural environment from current and future climate change-exacerbated hazards (floods, droughts, heavy precipitation events, strong wind, landslides, heat stress, wildfires).
Sub-goals
- Masterton District has transitioned to zero-emissions energy sources.
- Masterton District Council has plans for increasingly severe hazards/risk (floods, droughts, storm events).
- Reduce carbon emissions related to creating and maintaining infrastructure (including buildings) and ensure infrastructure is designed to withstand climate impacts.
- Masterton District has biologically healthy rivers which provide for our local communities, and our flora and fauna.
- Masterton has access to enough water to service a growing population.
- Masterton District Council has a clear picture of the health of the district’s rivers, including what parts are improving and what parts need urgent attention, and the Masterton community has a clear understanding of what work is being done to improve them.
- Enhance the capacity of the natural environment to sequester carbon and protect indigenous biodiversity from the impacts of climate change.
- Masterton District Council supports legal protection of key biodiversity hotspot sites that will be important in helping our native flora and fauna to adapt to climate change.
- Masterton District Council remove any local barriers to a transformative, low-emission primary industries sector.
- A connected regional approach to mitigating and adapting to climate change which allows for knowledge sharing and uses Council resources/staff capacity wisely.
- Utilise the current and future regional projects to feed into council decision-making around climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Action categories
- Energy transition
- Emergency response
- Public spaces
- Building construction/retrofit
- District mapping
- District planning
- Productive landscapes
- Biodiversity and ecosystem health
