Climate Change: Killing coal locally

If we are to avoid dangerous levels of climate change and making huge chunks of the Earth uninhabitable, we need to end fossil fuel use as quickly as possible. The International Energy Agency has recommended an immediate end to fossil fuel development. An obvious way to do this is by national policy, but that doesn't seem to be happening. But a group in Nelson is trying to do it locally as well:

A group of concerned citizens is calling on Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council to work with central government and industry to end coal use in Nelson Tasman by 2025.

[...]

The group calls on Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council to work with central government and industry toward three goals:

1. Prohibit new resource consents for coal use or mining, effectively immediately.

2. End all existing consents for coal use or mining by 2025.

3. Ensure adequate monitoring of all current coal users according to the conditions of the relevant resource consent.

How would they do that? By amending the appropriate RMA planning documents to make mining and burning coal prohibited activities. Ending existing consents will be harder, and may require legislation from central government, but if there is any provision for consents to be reviewed, that may be able to be used. The third is of course something local authorities should be doing anyway; if they're not, they're not doing their jobs properly.

This strategy isn't something that should be limited to Nelson and Tasman, however. All regional councils regulate coal burning through their air quality plans, so all of them can be pressured to shut down pollution at source. Mining is controlled by district councils (and mostly rural ones at that), but they can be pressured to. So, if your local authority is currently reconsidering its plans, get together with friends, and start applying pressure.