Grant awarded to community climate projects
Published on 01 November 2023
Whanganui District Council has awarded the Community Climate Action Fund to eight community projects across the district. The fund supports not-for-profit projects that will either reduce greenhouse gas emissions or enhance the community’s resilience to the effects of climate change.
Caroline Arrowsmith, the council’s climate change advisor, says she’s impressed with the range of topics that were addressed.
“This is the second round of the fund, and it was great to see a high standard of applications once again. The funded projects range from re-establishing local wetlands to future-proofing our district’s biodiversity, providing free home consultations to promote energy efficiency, and enabling church communities to take practical action to mitigate climate change.
“There were more applicants than the fund was able to support, so unfortunately we weren’t able to support everyone. Nevertheless, it’s a positive sign that the community is committed to addressing climate change with creative ideas. The initiatives all have a role to play in benefiting our district in the long term.”
The funding recipients are:
- Bushy Park Tarapuruhi: Eco-sanctuary educator to provide hands-on native forest restoration experience for schools and community
- Woven Rivers Trust: Support for work on reforestation, māra kai (gardening for food), and course coordination
- Heritage Food Crops Research Trust: Promoting community food resilience and knowledge through school and community workshops and visits
- The ECO School: Advice and education on energy-efficient housing and resilient land management
- A Rocha Aotearoa: Enabling church communities to participate in and lead climate action
- Ngapera-Kehu Ahu Whenua Trust: Ngapera-Kehu wetland development project
- Sustainable Whanganui Trust: Sharing and promoting the Trust’s projects and activities to encourage more community participation in sustainability
- House of Science: Climate change science kit for schools to support hands-on learning.
The recipients of the eight grants were chosen by the Community Climate Action Fund advisory panel and approved by the council’s sustainability and waste advisory group. The panel made decisions based on alignment with criteria and strategic outcomes.
There is $100,000 to allocate each financial year which comes from existing funding allocated to climate action in the council’s Long-Term Plan 2021-31. The fund is on a two-year trial and is now up for review.
The full list of recipients as well as more information on the Community Climate Action Fund can be found here.
“The council has also been chosen as one of four councils around the country to have aspects of their climate change work programme audited by the Office of the Auditor General,” says Caroline Arrowsmith.
“Auditors will be looking at how strategies have progressed from planning to implementation. In our Climate Change Strategy, we committed to empowering our community to take climate action and the Community Climate Action Fund is an important part of how we are doing this."