Symposium: Yes We Can

Date of event: 31 May 2016

Use these links to navigate down the page

Who's Who of Attendees booklet - (includes the symposium programme with links to presentations, videos and group discussion notes)
Webinar - Understanding NZ's GHG emissions profile - (presented by Waikato University prior to the symposium)
Support material - (suggested reading material provided by syposium contributors)

The energy efficiency and renewable energy associations have identified that a significant component of the Government’s climate change targets agreed in Paris are achievable within this sector alone. Businesses are also looking to what immediate opportunities they can adopt to make them low carbon. Local government is seeking guidance on how they can assist transition to being low carbon communities.

The symposium covered opportunities for the supply of energy from geothermal, solar, wind and bioenergy resources; the increased productivity from wise energy management; the availability of technology options such as electric vehicles and biofuels; and the demand for sustainable energy for business, transport and domestic use. The opportunities discussed were not “maybes”, or wishful thinking, but realistic and achievable within the Paris timetable.

Attendees were invited to test how realistic the opportunities are and to contribute their views on what would be required to achieve the targets in the timeframe proposed. Attendees were expected to contribute to development of recommendations to Government on what would assist. The symposium was for central and regional policy developers and investment strategists of business and industry to hear of priority opportunities.

The theme of the symposium was "Yes We Can!"

The information gathered from the symposium and summaries provided by each stakeholder organisation (below) will be collated into a Plan of Action to be submitted to Government.

Symposium attendee material:

Who's Who of Attendees at the Symposium - (includes the symposium programme with links to presentations, videos and group discussion notes.
'Yes We Can!' roadmap
Framework
Summary of what would assist faster achievement of the GHG mitigation targets

Webinar

Understanding New Zealand's GHG emissions profile, webinar presented by Dr Martin Atkins & Dr Tim Walmsley, University of Waikato

Symposium support material:

Contributors material prepared for the symposium and recommended as prior reading is available below. Attendees were encouraged to be familiar with this background material as was referred to throughout the symposium. This allowed to focus the sessions on identifying the priority mitigation opportunities and discussing the barriers to their uptake.