Wellington could be the next city to declare a climate emergency, with councillors sitting down to debate the issue on Thursday.
Councillor Iona Pannett told Newshub the declaration would be backed up by real action.
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"We will develop an implementation plan in terms of prioritising and finding how much money we're going to spend, that would be done over the next couple of budgets."
Pannett said the council is working with Government to boost public transport, and walking and cycle ways, because there's plenty of work still to come on ensuring Wellington is responding appropriately to climate change.
"We need to plant more fruit trees so there's more sustainable food production, we need to make sure it's easy for people to install rainwater tanks to collect water for when there's drought," Pannett said.
Auckland Council voted to declare a climate emergency last week, vowing that it would be backed up by action.
"With a climate change emergency, and climate change now our full focus we change the lens through which we set policy and set our budget," Councillor Penny Hulse told The AM Show.
Pannett said Wellington would be taking similar steps if it declares an emergency.
"This will be just highlighting the fact that many of our ecological systems are under threat as well, which does compromise the quality of human life and we'll, of course, be having a big focus on climate change."
Newshub.
