Councillors at today's Environment Southland agreed that climate change needs urgent action, despite voting against declaring a climate change emergency.

The meeting attracted a large peaceful crowd which included people listening outside via a sound system when the council chamber became full.

Two speakers addressed the council on the topic ahead of the councillors’ debate. Nathan Surendran put forward a range of reasons why he thought the council should declare a climate change emergency. Denis Bartley also spoke in support of declaring a climate change emergency, drawing on his experience as an oil industry engineer, Anglican priest and grandfather.

A motion put forward by councillor Eric Roy for Environment Southland to "acknowledge that climate change is an important issue which we have to engage with" was successfully carried, with council "commiting to applying best practice and best science to its responsibilities and accords urgency to developing an action plan."

Councillors who voted in favour of the motion were councillor Roy, Nicol Horrell, Lloyd McCallum, Ross Cockburn, Grant Hubber, Neville Cook, David Stevens, Jeremy McPhail, Lyndal Ludlow and Maurice Rodway. Councillors Robert Guyton and Rowly Currie abstained.

An earlier motion put forward by councillor Robert Guyton for the Council to declares a climate emergency was defeated 8-4.

Councillors Guyton, Ludlow, Currie and Rodway were the only councillors who voted for the motion. 

Councillor Rodway put forward an amendment to the original motion before the vote that included a definition of ‘climate change emergency’, but was defeated 10-2.

Environment Southland chairman Nicol Horrell said it was good to have the debate and acknowledged Councillor Guyton’s efforts in raising climate change for discussion at council and publicly.

“It was good to hear everyone’s views and to have such good public interest. In the end we had an almost unanimous outcome. The word ‘emergency’ was a sticking point for many of us, but it was clear from the debate that we all agree that urgent action is needed. 

“The council is already doing a lot of good work in relation to climate change and that came through too. Now, we will work on an action plan that articulates where to next, but as was clear during the debate, it will take everyone coming together to make a collective difference."