Overall, Dunedin is well off the pace for hitting a net-zero carbon target by 2030, but the council itself appears to be on track regarding its own operation.
That includes operating a landfill and various other facilities.
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich said the best approach for the council was to ensure it achieved its own targets and "encourage everyone else to do likewise".
"We look to be pretty well on track for the council’s own emissions but, community-wide, there’s a lot of work to do," he said.
Several councillors seemed to be heartened at a meeting last week by activity the council was starting to pursue after substantial planning and policy work.
However, questions about whether a business-as-usual approach to curbing carbon emissions is adequate - or if an accelerated push and higher spending are needed - are set to be a feature of 2025-34 long-term plan hearings and deliberations.
Cr David Benson-Pope said some indicators were positive, but he expected the council to receive a firm message from the community during nine-year plan hearings about performance.
"More needs to be done and we need to commit to that," he said.
"I don’t think we are providing enough leadership or enough funding for actually making even more progress."
Waste was one bright spot from an update for councillors about how the council was tracking in the first half of the 2024-25 year.
Waste-to-landfill emissions were 57% lower than in 2019-20 and 1.3% down on the same period in 2023-24, a report for the council said.
"Despite a higher tonnage received at the landfill in 2024-25 compared to the same period in 2023-24, improved collection and destruction of landfill gas resulted in lower emissions in the first six months of this reporting period."
An upgraded rubbish and recycling kerbside collection service started in July last year, including a separate collection of food scraps and green waste.
However, trucks are carting organic waste to Timaru for processing until a facility is ready in Dunedin.
Emissions from closed landfills in the city were also down.
Ongoing optimisation of the incinerator at the Tahuna wastewater treatment plant resulted in less diesel consumption there.
However, diesel-powered pumps elsewhere in the network had to be used more because of storms.
Cr Mandy Mayhem said there were gains from revamping the kerbside collection service and the waste sector was performing better than anticipated.
Councillors were briefed at a closed workshop last week and the PowerPoint presentation from this noted a significant positive impact in waste-to-landfill emissions.
However, using real-time data for emissions from wastewater treatment plants had a moderate negative impact.
Overall, under both a business-as-usual and accelerated-ambition scenarios, Dunedin would not achieve net-zero status by 2035.
Cr Jim O’Malley highlighted changes in government transport policy and funding made it more difficult for the city to curb transport emissions.
The council had not abandoned its targets and it was actively moving forward, he said.
Cr O’Malley said if the community was clear it wanted high spending to curb emissions, the council would have to consider this.
Cr Andrew Whiley had some qualms about reduced air travel for staff, particularly if this meant the council was less engaged in on-the-ground networking and city promotion.
Cr Christine Garey said face-to-face contact remained important in some situations.
